Maccabi blanked Hapoel 3-0 in the Tel Aviv Derby in a game that saw many stoppages occur over the course of the first half due to fans throwing flares on the field. Immediately as the match began at Bloomfield Stadium, fans on both sides began tossing colored flares onto the pitch that kept delaying the game and forced the referee to add 25 minutes of first half stoppage time. Due to the continuous starts and stops as the game got underway, the two squads had a tough time finding chances as the first half ended goalless.

However, the second half was an entirely different story as the yellow-and-blue began to dominate play and finally broke the deadlock when starlet Oscar Gloukh’s left footed laser found the far corner of the Hapoel goal to give the hosts a 1-0 lead in the 75th minute. Superstar striker Eran Zahavi doubled the advantage when he took a Parfait Guiagon pass and put the ball past Reds keeper Stefan Marinovic while Djorde Jovanovic polished off the victory deep into injury time.

“The country’s fans are similar in the countries in Greece and Serbia but not like today where the game was stopped 7-8 times,” Maccabi bench boss Vladen Ivic said. “I don’t remember something like this. It’s most difficulty for the players as they had warmed up and then they have to keep stopping. This is the worst thing for both teams as they prepared to play from the start of the game and there could be injuries. I hope that this will not happen again.”

As for the game play itself, Ivic was content with what he saw from his charges, “I am satisfied that we created a lot of chances and the second half we did as well and we deserved the win and we worked agreed form the first and last second. We played very disciplined defensively as well.”

Slobodan Drapic, the Hapoel coach also discussed the extracurricular activity that took place, “This shouldn’t have happened and we are here to play soccer. I don’t want to or have to deal with these things. The atmosphere was good and the referee was right not to stop the game. This was something that shouldn’t happen from both sides. Maccabi has more quality and we had to be ready for everything. We played tactically but we need more players, however, all in all we played ok.”

“The atmosphere was great,” Eran Zahavi said. “But to have to stop the match so many times really hurts the game play itself. The police, league and Football Association dealt with it and while it’s not they most ideal situation to have to keep starting and stopping, we did what we know how to do best.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva and Hapoel Haifa drew 2-2 as the southerners knotted the match up with a quarter hour remaining in the match to split the points. Hatem Abd Elhamed gave the Carmel reds the lead when he scored from in close off a corner kick but Helder Lopes put home a penalty in the 37th minute to send the squads into the break tied at 1-1. With Hanan Maman leading the break, he sent the ball to striker Alon Turgeman who made no mistake as he gave the hosts a 2-1 lead. However, Rotem Hatuel scored yet another goal, his fourth of the season for Elyaniv Barda’s team to take a point in a tight game.

“I’m very disappointed as we came into this game very prepared with a huge desire and the understanding that this game could really give us a big push,” Beer Sheva coach Barda commented. “In a game that you score two goals at home you have to make sure you win. We had so many chances and we needed score another goal in order to take the victory.”

“How can I be happy with a point,” a throughly distraught Haifa coach Nir Klinger said. “There is no way in the world that I can be content. To come into Turner Stadium and have such a great half with so many chances and then they get a penalty, I have to see exactly what happened over there.”

Kiryat Shemona and Ashdod played to an entertaining 1-1 draw as Roi Kehat found the equalizer in second half injury time to give a point a piece to each club. Itay Ben Shabbat was sent off in the 2nd minute of the game due to a reckless foul as the northerners were reduced to 10-men very early on.

Lucas Salinas took advantage of the extra man to give the port city squad a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute but then lost Shalev Harush after the attacker was issued a second yellow card early in the second half. The hosts looked to even the game up which they finally did in the 91st minute when Joseph Mbong delivered a perfect pass that Roi Kehat nodded home to split the points.

“We received a red card right away and we tried to keep the game scoreless until halftime, but unfortunately we gave up a goal,” explained Ravid Gezel, Kiryat Shemona’s coach for the game due to the passing of Menachem Koretzky’s father. “We made some changes at the break and the red card to Ashdod helped us but all in all the result reflected this game.”

“I made a mistake and should have taken Harush out due to the fact he had already been issued a yellow card,” Ashdod coach Ran Ben Shimon said. “That second yellow allowed Kiryat Shemona to come back into the game. I told him to be careful but he is young, committed a foul and got the red card.”