Maccabi Tel Aviv slipped by Maccabi Netanya 2-1 as a pair of penalties helped the yellow-and-blue to the win and the 3-points. Eran Zahavi gave Zarko Lazetic’s squad an early 1-0 lead via the penalty spot, but an own goal by Idan Nachmias evened up the game at 1-1 in the 49th minute. However, Elad Madmon’s spot kick in send half injury time gave Maccabi the much needed victory.

“I feel great,” Lazetic began. “The players deserve all of the respect for the character they showed as they didn’t give up until the end even though they were tired. The changes I made brought energy, we have good players and a very good team. The last half hour was exactly as I imagined and I am happy to leave here with the victory. We didn’t start the second half well, and even in the first half we weren’t 100 percent under pressure because there is fatigue. We will continue to play our style, that’s important to me. Great credit goes to Maccabi Netanya, they played a great game and I wish them success this season.”

“We started the game brilliantly,” Netanya bench boss Marko Balbul said. “Little by little Maccabi Tel Aviv took control of the game, we were less accurate, less quality in the last pass, but overall we played against a very strong team that beat us with only two penalties.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva downed Hapoel Jerusalem 3-1 to take the win and points against a Reds team that lost a pair of players in the first half to red cards. Samba Diallo was issued a red card in the 5th minute due to a reckless tackle on Guy Mizrachi leaving them capital city Reds with 10-men. However, that did not stop Ohad Almagor who scored a brilliant corner kick right from the flag to give Ziv Arie’s team a 1-0 lead.

But things went from bad to worse when Cedric Don was handed his second yellow card which was good for a red leaving Jerusalem with 9 players for more than an entire half of play. Paul Garita took advantage of the situation and headed home the tying goal in the 57th minute while substitute Antonio Sefer gave Beer Sheva the 2-1 lead in the 70th minute. The southern reds doubled their advantage when Omer Agvadish’s 82nd minute goal handed Ron Kozuk’s team the 3-points and the win.

“We conceded a stupid goal,” Beer Sheva bench boss Kozuk said. “It didn’t surprise me because this week when we practiced on dead ball situations we didn’t look good. We have to pay attention to this goal as well, but I think the players showed a lot of maturity, it’s not easy to play against a team that is so packed in and to move the ball patiently from side to side and create situations, those who have played soccer know that it’s not easy. I’m proud of them for their maturity and the way they continued to play as well as the 3-points.

“We came with a game plan, we really believed that we would win here,” Jerusalem coach Ziv Arie said. “We did everything right even with ten players, but playing with nine players in Beer Sheva is very difficult, it’s a real shame. We came to win, we play good football all the time, except for the game against Hapoel Haifa where it was more of an attitude problem and less so on the soccer side of things.”