Beitar Jerusalem smashed Maccabi Netanya 6-3 as Ion Nicolaescu scored four goals to help the yellow-and-black to the big win at Teddy Stadium. Nicolaescu scored early and often as he opened the game up by finding the corner of Itamar Nitzan\u2019s net in the 3rd minute, while the striker doubled the advantage just minutes later as he went around the keeper and tapped home the ball for a 2-0 lead. Nicolasescu played facilitator in the 19th minute when he handed the ball off to Danilo Asprilla who fired home the Beitar\u2019s 3rd goal and Trazie Thomas closed out the half by giving Yossi Abuksis\u2019s side a 4-0 lead by the break.<\/p>\n
However, Netanya began to mount a comeback as Eden Kartzev scored from 25 meters out in the 59th minute while Igor Zlatanovic headed home Karam Jaber\u2019s cross just a minute later to cut the lead to 4-2. Zlatanovic completed a brace via a 72nd minute penalty after a Thomas handball to narrow the gap to 4-3 but Kartzev was issued a red card to leave Ron Kozuk\u2019s team with just ten men in the 73rd minute. From that point on it was all Nicolasecu once again with his third and fourth goals of the game to wrap up an entertaining 6-3 victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was one of the craziest games that I have ever coached,\u201d Abuksis said. \u201cOn one hadn\u2019t we had a fantastic first half and then we had tweety awful minutes, perhaps the worst that I have ever seen. We lost so many balls and it was the exact opposite of what i wanted to see. We will need to learn from those poor minutes of play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t give up six goals and what occurred to us on defense was just sad,\u201d Kozuk explained. \u201cThis is what happens when the players don\u2019t play with our clear values. When they do then we get what we saw in those twenty minutes that we dominated to begin the second half. <\/p>\n
Nicolaescu also spoke about his 4-goal game, \u201cI am in great shape right now and I am happy that I was able to score some goals and help the team out. I have scored in the Toto Cup, State Cup and now in the league so I am very satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped by Ashdod 1-0 as Rotem Hatuel scored late in the second half to take the points and the win at the port city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an important win,\u201d Beer Sheva bench boss Elyaniv Barda began. \u201cThis was a real battle and we knew that Ashdod would play a very tight defensive line. We were focused and ready for this game after having fallen just days ago in the State Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played well and we were able to keep Beer Sheva from creating chances,\u201d a disappointed Ashdod coach Ran Ben Shimon said. \u201cIt was a 0-0 game for the most part and a goal here or there was going to win the game. We weren\u2019t sharp enough to score that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goal scorer Rotem Hatuel looked back at the match, \u201cI always give my all and it doesn\u2019t matter where I begin the game whether on the field or the bench. It\u2019s very difficult to win at Ashdod and we took the loss in the State Cup here very hard and we knew that we had to win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hapoel Tel Aviv mounted a comeback to draw 3-3 with Hapoel Haifa at an empty Bloomfield Stadium due to a penalty levied against the Tel Aviv fans from their actions at the Derby earlier in the season. Eliel Peretz scored his first goal since retuning to Israel to give the Carmel Reds a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute. Liran Sardel was yanked down in the box and Gal Arel converted the spot kick to give the visitors a 2-0 advantage at halftime. <\/p>\n
Alen Ozbolt scored in close to cut the lead to 2-1 but Alon Turgeman scored in the 71st minute to bump the lead back up to a 2-goal advantage. Ben Bitton found Or Israelov in the box as the latter headed the ball home in the 78th minute and six minutes later Ziv Zrihan knotted the game up at 3-3 as the squads split the points. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave up a pair of goals from set pieces,\u201d Tel Aviv coach Slobodan Drapic said. \u201cThere is no question that we need to play with a full squad and we saw that when the substitutes came on in the second half. We have a mix of veterans and youngsters and after the long break for the World Cup, I am content with the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is disappointing as we had expectations for much more,\u201d Haifa bench box Roni Levi explained. \u201cWe played against an opponent that is at our level and we weren\u2019t good enough yet. We need to strengthen our squad and we need to lift ourselves up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hapoel Jerusalem and Hapoel Hadera played to a goalless draw at the Netanya Stadium to split the points. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have won the game and we were much better creating 4-5 chances that should have been enough,\u201d Jerusalem coach Ziv Arie said. \u201cI would have been very happy should we have been able to score. The players did what was asked of them and we should have won, but a point in any case is always good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played with a very short handed lineup,\u201d Hadera assistant coach Nimrod Kostika commented. \u201cThis isn\u2019t an excuse and we had some tough days after we were eliminated from the State Cup. We were more dangerous in this game even when they controlled the ball. We didn\u2019t want to lose after falling to Kfar Saba and we drew which was a good result.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beitar Jerusalem smashed Maccabi Netanya 6-3 as Ion Nicolaescu scored four goals to help the yellow-and-black to the big win at Teddy Stadium. Nicolaescu scored early and often as he opened the game up by finding the corner of Itamar Nitzan\u2019s net in the 3rd minute, while the striker doubled the advantage just minutes later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":74825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[55,5434],"class_list":["post-74824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-israel-2","tag-beitar-jerusalem","tag-ion-nicolaescu","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n