Maccabi Tel Aviv captured the Toto Cup in a thrilling 3-1 win over Maccabi Haifa at the Netanya Stadium. Dor Peretz scored a second half brace as the yellow-and-blue mounted a comeback to win the first trophy of the season. In the shadow of star forward Omer Atzily deciding at the last second to join Beitar Jerusalem and not Maccabi Haifa after a verbal agreement with owner Yakov Shachar, Haifa came out flying as the pitch was tilted one way throughout the first half.

Dean David slammed home a through ball in the 29th minute to give the Greens a 1-0 lead and had a chance to double the advantage early in the second half from the penalty spot after Weslley Patati tripped up Dolev Haziza which handed Dia Saba a 53rd minute spot kick. However, Saba’s attempt went off the post to safety giving new life to Zarko Lazetic’s team.

Patati played give and go with Gaby Kanichowsky as the Brazilian found the equalizer in the 62nd minute. From there on in it was all Maccabi Tel Aviv as Peretz scored his first of the game off yet another Kanichowsky assist while the midfielder completed his brace in the 77th minute when he latched onto a Roy Revivo through ball to polish off the win.

“This is how we expected to play,” Maccabi bench boss Zarko Lazetic said. “First of all, I have to say – there was an amazing atmosphere, I want to thank our wonderful fans, I know there was terrible traffic jams so I hope that now at least they will go home happy. In the first half, the atmosphere affected us and it seemed like we were waiting for someone else to do something every time. Haifa pressed us high and hard, they didn’t stop attacking us and created momentum. The second half was excellent for us, congratulations to Haifa for an excellent game, it was a great turnaround for us, we managed to win a second game in a row like that and that’s important for us as a young team.”

“It’s really frustrating,” Haifa coach Barak Bachar said. “We feel like this year we start the game well and come prepared and then something happens, there’s a drop, like the penalty that was. That’s something we need to improve on, there are a lot of good things in the game, we really wanted it for the fans especially because of what happened [with Atzily] and that it’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, we wanted to give them some type of happiness.”

Dor Peretz spoke about the win, “In matches like that against Maccabi Haifa, the team that is more aggressive, more dominant and plays with more intensity is the one that looks better on the pitch. Maccabi Haifa did that in the first half but things turned round in the second half. They dropped back a little bit while we began playing with more intensity, aggression, were the ones who win tackles and I think that this is what gave us the goals and the victory in the end.”