Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Hapoel Beer Sheva 1-0 down south at Toto Turner Stadium as Tal Ben Chaim scored the lone goal of the contest in the 39th minute to give the yellow-and-blue the 3-points.

However, the victory was marred by an incident near the end of the match that saw Beer Sheva superstar Josue spit at Maccabi midfielder Avi Rikan out of frustration raising the ire of the visitors. “He needs to be penalized and he shouldn’t even be acknowledged,” goal scorer Tal Ben Chaim said. “It’s the lowest thing that one can do. I hope that whoever needs to see what happened will and that they will take care of it.”

Both Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Patrick Van Leeuwen and Beer Sheva interim boss Elyaniv Barda refused to discuss the matter following the clash.

Van Leeuwen did speak about the club’s victory, “Right from the start we did everything as a team. We wanted to play well and all 11 players fought and battled as they wanted to do the best they could.

Barda who took over the reins from Yossi Abuksis who left to take over the open coaching position at Bnei Yehuda over the weekend also reflected on the game, “We had a good first half and we pressed them high as we were able to get them out of their comfort zone but we ended up giving up a goal.”

Maccabi Haifa blanked Hapoel Kfar Saba 3-0 as the Carmel Greens easily disposed of Elisha Levy’s squad from the Sharon thanks to a brace by the league’s leading goal scorer Nikita Rukavytsya. Dolev Haziz opened the scoring in the 35th minute when he swirled a placed a vicious strike by a helpless Itamar Israeli to give Barak Bachar’s side a 1-0 lead. Haziza then played the part of facilitator for Rukavytsya’s first goal in the 54th minute while Omer Atzili sent him on his way for this second ten minutes later to wrap up an easy victory at Sammy Ofer Stadium.

Hapoel Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shemona drew 1-1 as the northern squad scored a dramatic 95th minute goal to split the points at Bloomfield Stadium. After a goalless first half, Ofek Bitton gave the Reds the lead in the 61st minute when he beat ‘keeper Dziugas Bartkus, but Abdallah Khlaikhal found the back of Ernestas Setkus’s goal to take the surprise point just as the game was about to come to an end.

Hapoel Hadera downed Bnei Sakhin 2-0 to give new coach Menachem Koretzky a victory in his debut. Maxim Plakuschenko broke the deadlock in the 39th minute as he took a pass from Shoval Gozlan and put the ball behind Muhamed Kandil to take a 1-0 lead while the aforementioned Gozlan scored the insurance goal in the second half to take home the win.

Maccabi Netanya defeated Ashdod 3-0 as Gaby Kanichowsky scored a brace while assisting on the other goal to lead the Diamond City squad to victory. Kanichowsky opened the scoring in the 34th minute whole he set up Karam Jaber less than ten minutes later to double the advantage. In the 82nd minute Kanichowsky once again found the back of the goal to wrap up the win and take the points.

Hapoel Haifa took care of Bnei Yehuda 2-0 thanks to goals by William Agada and Liran Sardel to take the 3-points.

In other news, Beitar Jerusalem won’t be able to play or practice in the near future due to a COVID-19 outbreak throughout the roster.