Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beersheba drew 1-1 as the Southern Reds escaped Bloomfield Stadium with a point to stay atop the table even on points with the yellow-and-blue, but just ahead due to better goal differential.
Dan Bitton scored the opening goal against his former club to give the visitors a 1-0 lead, but before the first half came to a conclusion Weslley Patati found the equalizer. However, that would be all the goal scoring on this night as each team picked up a point for their efforts.
“From the moment when we started to rush to play fast, that’s exactly what Beersheba need,” Maccabi coach Zarko Lazetic said after the game. “They are very good in transition. Because of that, we started to lose the ball and we suffered in the second half. We wanted to win, the players gave everything. I congratulated them for how they tried. Of course it could have been better, but it could also have been worse. We will keep playing our way and believing that we will be champions.”
“Mainly it’s a big game, it’s a big game, it’ll go to tackles and whoever wins the ball,” Beersheba coach Ran Kozuk said of what he said to his players at halftime. “I said that the game was 50-50 and whoever wins the 50-50 will win the game. It was an intense game – Maccabi got into momentum 10-15 minutes before the goal and then they scored. It wasn’t a good result, but it definitely wasn’t a bad result. We’ll take the draw and move on to the next game.”
“It was a missed opportunity,” Maccabi midfielder Gabi Kanichowsky summarized the feeling in the locker room after the game. “We spoke about how the game was in their hands, with long balls and the pressure they put on us. It was also difficult with their physicalness. We’ve come back from being down, we need to work on this and gain a little more confidence, at this stage of the season we need to win games.”
“We know that it was going to be a decisive game, so I think both teams wanted to win the game, but also didn’t want to lose,” Beersheba defender Miguel Vitor spoke about the game. “For most of the game we had control, we lost a bit of it before their goal for around 10-15 minutes, we lost some balls and they scored to make it 1-1. In the second half they only had one chance, but most of the time we controlled and had a better chance to score. We needed to show matureness in a tough game and good stadium. I think we need to be happy with the result.”
Maccabi Netanya beats Beitar Jerusalem 3-0
Meanwhile, Maccabi Netanya blanked Beitar Jerusalem 3-0 as Maxim Plakuschenko scored a brace to propel the visitors to the win and the three points.
Heriberto Tavares opened the scoring as he took advantage of a defensive mistake in the box to give the diamond city side a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute while Plakuschenko scored a pair of goals ahead of the break to take the easy win.
Ohad Kadoussi, who was on the sidelines in place of head coach Yossi Abukasis commented: “We played really well and the players deserve to be proud of their effort. We’ve been telling them for a few weeks that we’re back to looking like we did before the playoffs and we’re back to being who we are, a team that plays quality football with excellent defensive ability.”
“I don’t see it that way, as if the players didn’t care about this game,” Beitar Jerusalem coach Barak Itzhaki said. “I don’t know a single player who goes onto the pitch and doesn’t care. We didn’t have enough energy, we weren’t good and we continued to make mistakes like in the previous game, which is a shame.”
Maccabi Haifa coach Barak Bachar fired from position
The biggest news of the week was, of course, Maccabi Haifa head coach Barak Bachar was fired after his side fell to Hapoel Haifa 5-1 in the derby which sent the Greens into total disarray as sports director Gal Alberman was also let go from his post.
The derby win was the Carmel Reds’ biggest over their city rivals since 1952 when they won 7-1.
Javon East who scored a hat-trick began the game with a pair of goals within the opening 30 minutes while Thiemoko Diarra added a third goal ahead of the break to give Hapoel a stunning 3-0 advantage over Maccabi.Diarra added his second of the match in the 50th minute while East scored his third marker two minutes later as Guy Melamed pulled back a strike in the 79th minute to break up the clean sheet against his former club.
Bachar had returned to Maccabi Haifa at the start of this season with high hopes that he would replicate his success with the club between 2020-2023 when he captured three straight league championships. However, the 45-year old bench boss had trouble out of the gate with his squad as the Greens were knocked out of UEFA Conference League contention in the second qualifying round, losing to Azerbaijani side Sabah in stunning fashion.
The alarms bells started going off early on in the season and while it appeared to right the ship, more poor results lately saw Haifa so far off the top of the table that the Derby thrashing was apparently enough for owner Yakov Shachar as the decision was made to relieve Bachar and Alberman of their duties.
In other sports news
Elsewhere, Bnei Sakhnin slipped by Ironi Kiryat Shmona 1-0 as Alexandre Ramalingon scored the lone marker of the match to hand the visitors the win that ensured they would not be relegated to the second division.
Hapoel Jerusalem downed Ironi Tiberias 3-1 as the capital city Reds took care of business against the Kineret based team battling relegation.
Before the game was 10 minutes old, the hosts grabbed a 2-0 lead as Noam Malmoud scored off a corner while Yanai Distelfeld doubled the advantage minutes later. Peter Michael pulled a goal back in the 64th minute but Ohad Almagor polished off the win with a 17-meter stunner 20 minutes later.
Maccabi Petah Tikva and Ashdod SC played to a 1-1 draw as the sides split the points, with Muhammed Knaan and Wilson Harris scoring for their respective teams.
Finally, Hapoel Hadera slipped by Maccabi Bnei Reineh 2-1 to take the points.