Maccabi Tel Aviv escaped with a 2-1 win over Hapoel Jerusalem as Ali Camara’s late header gave the yellow-and-blue the comeback victory and the 3-points. After a goalless first half, the capital city reds took the shock lead Roy Revivo was sent off with a second yellow card and allowed Guy Badash the opportunity to take a 1-0 lead from the penalty spot in the 67th minute. However, just minutes later Ido Shahar drew Maccabi even as Camara’s late header off an Itamar Noy ball handed Zarko Lazertic’s squad a stunning victory to the delight of the fans.

“There were a lot of emotions and that’s the beauty of football,” Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach Zarko Lazetic said. “We started the game well, in the first few minutes we had several good chances. Then at halftime we talked about how in matches like this, the opponent can surprise us on a counterattack, so we need to be patient, but it’s not easy. Everyone expects us to dominate and score four goals. It seems like we needed the red card, everyone was just waiting for us to score. The red card made us realize we had to do something. We had many chances and could have scored earlier, but sometimes it’s just not possible.”

A disappointed Hapoel Jerusalem Head Coach Ziv Arie said, “The loss happened because in the final minutes we did things we hadn’t done the entire game, we let Maccabi back into the match. The same thing happened to us here last year as well. It’s okay, we’ll deal with it. We have injuries, but we’re playing with what we have.”

The game winning goal scorer Ali Camara was all smiles following the game, “I’m not the only happy person in the stadium, the fans and the players are happy too. We’re all happy with the last-minute win. The 3-points were very important for us. We want to keep winning all of our games but it’s not easy. In this game it happened at the last moment, but we’re happy to get the points at home.”

Beitar Jerusalem slipped by Kiryat Shemona 2-1 after going a man down for almost the entire second half as the yellow-and-black took the victory at Teddy Stadium. Kiryat Shemona controlled the pace of play from the get go, but Beitar opened the scoring when Grigori Morozov sent a smart cross into the box right to Adi Yona who slotted the ball home to take the lead in the 32nd minute. Omer Atzily doubled the advantage less than five minutes later when he scored just inside the right post to give the hosts a 2-0 lead by the break.

However, just as the second half began Ailson Tavares picked up a second yellow card and was sent off in the 48th minute which was followed by central defender Brayan Carabali pulling down Muhammad Abu Rumi in the box setting up Cristian Martinez’s marker from the penalty spot as Kiryat Shemona cut the lead to 2-1. Despite playing with ten men for the majority of the second half, Beitar was in full control on the pitch and held off the visitors to take the 3-points.

“I have to admit that we went into halftime holding a surprise 2-0 lead,” Beitar Jerusalem Head Coach Barak Itzhaki began. “It wasn’t a great half of play by us but we knew how to score twice. When you get a red card and give up a goal at the start of the second half you feel as if the team is going backwards especially after the trauma from earlier in the week. But the guys showed character and we knew how to hold onto the score and take the 3-points which are very important for us.”

“I have to credit the players as they did a good job despite coming up short,” Kiryat Shemona bench boss Shay Barda said. “We are headed in the right direction and we will have to learn how to win these types of games down the road. We pressed Beitar and we played how I wanted them to as we worked on since the preseason. We may have lost but we are going the right way.”

Adi Yona spoke about the game that was, “We didn’t start that well and we had a tough week that really sat in our heads since the loss to Hapoel Tel Aviv. We got that red card but we knew how to win the game as well. As for my goal, I am working hard and I scored.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv sunk Ashdod 6-2 as Roei Alkukin scored a first half brace to help the Reds to the win. The port city side opened the game in style as Karim Kimvuidi put home a Eugene Ansah cross in less than a minute from the opening whistle, however, from that moment on it was all Hapoel Tel Aviv. Stav Turiel fed Daniel Dappa in front of the goal to knot the game up while the same Turiel then found Alkukin to give the Reds a quick 2-1 lead in the 13th minute.

Turiel then had a hand in his team’s third goal when his corner kick went off of Kimvuidi and into the Ashdod goal while keeper Karol Niemczycki’s poor clearance went right off of Alkunin and into the back of net to make it 4-1. Turiel, who had already played a factor on three of the goals the scored one himself as his left footed laser went into the back of the goal for a 5-1 advantage at halftime. Jean Florent Batoum pulled a goal back in the 49th minute but Chico’s header closed the game out for Hapoel who took home the 3-points and the big win.

“We went down by a goal after less than a minute of play but we knew how to come back,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Eilyaniv Barda began. “We’ve now played four games and every one of them we found ourselves in a deficit situation. We need to focus on this fact and work on it. Also, while we played a great first half, we only played to a 1-1 draw in the second and we have to know how to play entire game.”

“There’s not much to explain here and not much that we can put a finger on after such a game,” Ashdod bench boss Haim Silvas said. “This is now twice in the past week that we were given quite the shock and we need to really take a deep look into what we are doing here in order to improve the team.”

Hapoel Petach Tikva pounded an overmatched Maccabi Bnei Reineh 6-1 as James Adenyi and Chipyoka Songa each scored a brace in the win. Cle scored the opening goal and then assisted on Adenyi’s marker to give Petach Tikva a 2-0 lead while Adenyi added his second of the game to up 3-0 by the break. Antonio Sefer broke up the clean sheet with a goal in the 71st minute but a Roie David marker along with a pair from Chipyoka wrapped up the win.

Petach Tikva Head Coach Omer Peretz said at the end of the match, “This is the biggest game of my career in the Premier League. It’s a joy to watch our team. We have an amazing group of players and this is an unprecedented result. This team is very good and it’s a pleasure to coach them. A fantastic game from us, a historic result on our part. We move forward with the 3-points; we believe we need to collect as many points as possible in the first round.”

Maccabi Bnei Reineh bench boss Slobodan Drapic said, “I’m constantly trying to see what to do and how. We should have gotten much more out of this game. We need to look into how we’ve conceded 15 goals so far, that’s an amount of goals that don’t belong in this league. I want to believe this is a marathon. We have one point out of 12, that can’t be allowed to happen.”

Maccabi Netanya needed a second half 5-goal outburst to down Ironi Tiberias 5-2 as Wilson Harris scored a brace in the win. Peter Michael gave the Kineret squad a 1-0 lead in the 2nd minute of the game which held up until the 52nd minute when Maxim Plakuschenko put home a penalty after a handball in the box. But just soon thereafter, Tiberias came back and took the lead via Waheb Habiballah. However, Oz Bilu assisted on back-to-back goals by Wilson Harris to give the diamond city squad a 3-2 lead by the 87th minute and then saw Heriberto Tavares and Yuval Sadeh both scored in added time to take the victory.

“We started the game terribly,” admitted Maccabi Netanya head coach Yossi Abukasis. “But from the moment we conceded the goal, we were excellent. Even at halftime I told the players that we were playing well and then we conceded again. I think the substitutions worked this time. I knew we would attack and I was worried about their counterattacks. We’ll need to find the right balance between defense and offense. Our attacking play was exceptional, it was outstanding football.”

Ironi Tiberias coach Eliran Hodeida summed up the loss, “It’s unacceptable that we’re leading 2-1 in the 75th minute and it ends like this. A game can’t finish 5-2 like that. We were soft and not committed enough. We’ll need to address that and the attitude needs to change, we can’t concede goals like these.”