Maccabi Tel Aviv split the points with Hapoel Hadera in a dramatic 2-2 draw on Thursday night, with the Yellow & Blue leaving points on the field to remain one point behind league leaders Hapoel Be’er Sheva.

In Maccabi’s first game at Bloomfield since a 1-1 draw against Ironi Tiberius at the end of September, the home team opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a goal to Eran Zahavi, courtesy of a pass in the box from Gabi Kanichowsky and touch from Ido Shahar. While Maccabi was clearly on top of possession and opportunities, it was Hadera who leveled the scores in the 27th minute when Godsway Donyoh put a ball through Maccabi keeper Roi Mishpati. While Shahar missed a header directly in front of the Hadera goal in from a perfect Kanichowsky cross in the 39th minute, he made up for it a minute later by converting a cross from Weslley Patati to give Maccabi a 2-1 lead going into the halftime break.

Neither team was able to affect the scoreboard early in the second half. Maccabi went down a man in the 83rd minute when Issouf Sissokho was handed a red card by referee Idan Leiba for a reckless tackle in centerfield on Liot Rokah. This gave Hadera the spark to attack and push for an equalizer, and while Kanichowsky took the ball down the field on the rebound in the 95th minute and passed the ball to Osher Davida who put the ball in the back of the net, a questionable penalty was awarded to Hadera by the VAR after Dor Peretz was handed a yellow card for pushing his opponent in the box on defense. Ibrahim Sangaré’s attempt was saved by Mishpati, but Maccabi was unable to clear the ball from the box and Gilad Abramov score the goal to equalize in the 101st minute and Hadera left Bloomfield with a share of the points.

“It’s best that I don’t talk about what happened at the end,” Maccabi coach Žarko Lazetic said of the penalty. “Well done to Hadera for the fight and the point, we controlled the game and missed opportunities to finish the game.”

“I didn’t see that we underestimated the opponent,” Lazetic said of the draw against the bottom-of-the-table team. “Of course we should play better defense in these kinds of games. We didn’t play with energy in defense. With the ball, it’s not easy when you have 8-9 players on the other team close the ball, it’s not easy to create more opportunities. You have to be much better in defense to cut that potential counterattack.”

“We have a chance like before every match,” Lazetic said of the upcoming game next week against Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer. “Haifa won their last match. They have two more days for preparation, but we’ll be ready. In my opinion, tonight’s loss is just more motivation for the next match.”

“I’m a man who works with a lot of emotion, everything that happens with a big heart,” Hadera coach Assaf Nimni said. “A big credit to the players, Hapoel Hadera came back twice from being down at Bloomfield, I don’t know when that last happened.”

“I think the point was well deserved,” Nimni continued. “Hadera’s fighting spirit returned today in a big way. The players believed and wanted, we tried to change the approach a couple of times in the game but overall the point let’s us breathe.”

“We need to finish off games a lot earlier and not get to a situation like that,” Shahar said following the game. “We tried to do it, but it’s sad for the crowd returning to Bloomfield after so long that we couldn’t do it.”

In Thursday night’s other game, Maccabi Bnei Reineh defeated Ironi Tiberius 1-0 at home, courtesy of a goal to Guy Hadida in the 28th minute.

“Our first half was great, we could’ve led by more than one goal,” Bnei Reineh coach Sharon Mimer said after the game.” In the second half there was a lot of fatigue, we had a crazy game here against Maccabi Tel Aviv three days ago. We needed to win with strength, take the points and I’m proud of the players. They are not breaking, not giving up on the game at all.”

“It was a very disappointing loss, in the second half we unquestionably dominated,” Tiberius coach Eliran Hudeda said. “It’s very disappointing and it hurts a lot. But now we need to lift our heads for Monday, the game against Maccabi Netanya which is essentially a game for 6 points. I hope that the ball will hit the net.”