Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Netanya played to a 1-1 draw as Dor Peretz opened the scoring in the 14th minute but Oz Bilu knotted the game up less than 5 minutes later while yellow-and-blue defender Ali Camara was shown red at the stroke of halftime due to a second yellow card leaving Zarko Lazetic’s team with 10 men for the entire second half as the two sides split the points for their efforts.

Netanya Head Coach Yossi Abukasis shared his thoughts, “I think Maccabi Tel Aviv’s red card gave us control and pushed them very deep, so they didn’t come forward and we had no space. We didn’t shoot enough from distance, we weren’t smart enough. There was no room to play because they played with five at the back and two defensive midfielders, it’s a very tough middle. But we should have tried to move the ball out wide more and take shots from afar. It’s very difficult to play against a team where seven or eight players aren’t thinking about attacking. Overall, a draw is okay, but since it was against ten men, we’re a bit disappointed.”

Maccabi bench boss Zarko Lazetic spoke about the draw, “Our performance was good, given the situation. We were dominant, but we conceded from a transition attack, we lost the ball in midfield and against a team like Netanya that’s dangerous. The red card changed the game; we reorganized and in my opinion we showed character on our part and good spirit. Unfortunately, we had a chance in the last minute and didn’t score, so we ended up with just one point.”