Maccabi Tel Aviv blanks Mac Haifa, marching toward title

Maccabi Tel Aviv took a giant step in the direction of wrapping up the 2019/20 championship with a 2-0 win over Maccabi Haifa at Bloomfield Stadium in Israel Premier League action on Wednesday night. With the victory, the yellow-and-blue opened up a 12-point gap with eight games remaining in the season.

Midfielder Eyal Golasa scored the first goal for Vladimir Ivic’s squad when he took a marvelous pass from Yonatan Cohen in the box and fired the ball past Greens ’keeper Josh Cohen for a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute. The players celebrated the strike by holding up Eitan Tibi’s number 18 jersey to recognize their teammate who is sitting Shiva after his father had passed away earlier in the week.

The hosts doubled their advantage in the 86th minute when Matan Hozez came racing into the box from the right side and beat Cohen to sew up the win.

“This was a big game, but it was difficult for both teams to play without fans,” said a stoic Ivic. “We play for them and we hope they will be back with us soon. I can’t say that we have won the title yet as we still have a lot of games in front of us and we are professionals. We would like to finish the season undefeated, but we still have eight games including two derbies.”

Elsewhere, Hapoel Tel Aviv continued their fine play since the resumption of the season with an easy 3-0 win over Beitar Jerusalem at Bloomfield Stadium on Tuesday night.

“Right now we are only concentrating on our immediate goals, to win games and play well,” said Reds coach Nir Klinger. “The players and staff have worked very hard during the coronavirus pandemic to make sure that everyone would be fit. You don’t forget how to play football after three months and we were able to return to the good things that we had been doing before the break.”

Jerusalem coach Roni Levi lamented his team’s effort.

“The first half was our worst of the season,” stated a disappointed Levy. “We didn’t begin the game well, we weren’t motivated and we didn’t play well tactically. We even gave them a number of gifts and helped them score goals.”

Meanwhile, at the port city, Ashdod SC stunned visiting Hapoel Ra’anana 3-2 in the relegation battle by scoring three unanswered second-half goals at the Yud Alef Stadium.

Also, Maccabi Netanya dumped Ironi Kiryat Shmona 3-1 as three different goal scorers beat the northern side’s Lithuanian ’keeper Džiugas Bartkus.

Guy Melamed opened the scoring with a 36th minute goal from close in while Hen Ezra added the diamond city squad’s second goal just before halftime for a 2-0 lead at the break. Mohammed Shaker pulled a goal back in the 58th minute, but Gaby Kanichowsky salted away the victory soon thereafter to give the hosts the three points.

“I waited a long time for this,” said Ezra after having not scored after two years in the Premier League. “I’m very happy that I scored and that we won after a tough period for all of us. I had some good performances before this, but I just didn’t score.”

Hapoel Hadera’s Gilad Avramov scored in the 95th minute to earn to a 2-2 draw against Sektzia Ness Ziona.

Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Beesheba played to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday as Nes Zamir gave Haifa the lead in the 70th minute before Josue drew the Southern Reds even 10 minutes later to close out the scoring.

Bnei Yehuda played to a scoreless draw against Hapoel Kfar Saba to split the points.

This weekend will see the Haifa derby between Maccabi and Hapoel take center stage at Sammy Ofer Stadium, struggling Beitar Jerusalem host Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beersheba welcome surging Hapoel

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Haifa Beitar Jerusalem Hapoel Beersheba Hapoel Tel Aviv Hapoel Haifa

Bnei Yehuda Hapoel Hadera Maccabi Netanya Ashdod SC Hapoel Kfar Saba Kiryat Shmona Ness Ziona Hapoel Ra’anana 28 28 28 28 28 28

27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 21 18 15 13 13 10

9 9 9 7 7 6 5 2 7 4 5 7 5 8

8 8 7 10 6 4 7 10 0 6 8 8 10 10

10 10 11 10 14 17 15 15 70 58 50 46 44 38

35 35 34 31 27 22 22 16

Tel Aviv in Championship Playoff action.

Bnei Yehuda will host Hapoel Hadera, Ashdod will travel to Kiryat Shmona, Kfar Saba will welcome Ra’anana and Maccabi Netanya will visit Ness Ziona in the Relegation Playoffs.