Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 Ramat Hasharon

Maccabi Tel Aviv had to play a home away from home match at Ramat Gan Stadium last night where they were able to squeak out a small 1-0 win against a struggling Ramat HaSharon club. RHS played what looked to be a brick wall in the back trying not to let in a goal against a powerful Maccabi Tel Aviv club and they were able to accomplish that in the first half. But when coach Paulo Sousa inserted Eran Zehavi at the beginning of the second half Maccabi took the bull by the horns and produced a beauty of a goal with the help of Tal Ben Haim in the first minute. From there it was just trying to get that 2nd strike which never came. Maccabi now turns it’s attention to Frankfurt and the Europa League away match on Thursday night.

Maccabi Petach 0-3 Maccabi Haifa

Haifa went on the road with a massive following of supporters and gave them 3 reasons to smile defeating the hosts 3-0! The Greens dominated the play for 90 minutes and controlled the temp throughout against an over matched Petach Tikva club. Haifa’s first goal came on an end to end run by Hen Ezra who slotted it home from the left side of the box to the right post at minute 22. That was followed up a few minutes later by a header own goal off a corner kick and Shlomi Azoulay finished the rout in minute 78. Petach Tikva’s Pedro Galvan picked up a red card out of total frustration as Haifa’s Avihay Yadin was Man of the Match. A good win for Arik Benado as he hopes to begin steering the ship upwards in the table.

Hapoel Beer Sheva 0-2 Kiryat Shemona

Elisha Levy’s Beer Sheva club came back to earth as Kiryat Shemona surprised the previously undefeated team on their home pitch. Dean Maimoni scored the first goal off a beautiful pass David Manga pass and the aforementioned Manga slotted in the second goal. The game became quite chippy after that strike as two HBS players, William Soares & Bojan Markovic picked up red cards as referee Alon Yefet handed out yellows like coupons to both teams. The loss left much to be desired by the 7,000 fans that were in attendance.

Hapoel Haifa 2-1 Bnei Yehuda

Bnei Yehuda’s losing streak hit five in a row as coach Dror Kashtan can’t seem to find a way to stop the bleeding for the Tel Aviv club as they sit below the relegation line. Or Ostaynd scored in the 11th minute for Haifa and Oz Rali leveled the score in the 23rd minute. But it was Nebojsa Marnikovic’s penalty winner in the 55th minute that sent the 3,000 Hapoel Haifa fans home happy!

Hapoel Raanana 1-3 Hapoel Akko

Raanana’s undefeated string of matches finally came to an end at home as Yuval Naim’s Akko club came prepared to pick up the maximum three points. Goals by Elior Seidere in minute 24, Guy Dayan in the 34th minute and Steven Cohen’s goal in minute 52 put away the win for the visiting team. Mamadou answered back in the 68th minute but it was too little too late especially after Nwakaeme’s red card in the 22nd minute.

Bnei Sakhnin 2-1 Ashdod

The home side came back from a 1-0 deficit on a penalty goal by David Solari in the 33rd minute with strikes by youngster Muhamed Kalibat and Piraeus Mugrabi in front of 3,000 rabid fans. Spanish sensation Hidalgo was Man of the Match as 6 yellow cards were handed out during the course of the game.