Desperation goal by Abuhazira gives Beitar Jerusalem draw with Mac TA
Shimon Abuhazira’s goal with the last touch of the match gave Beitar Jerusalem a 2-2 draw against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Premier League action in Netanya on Sunday night, ending the yellow-and-blue’s perfect start to the season.
Maccabi looked to be heading to its third win from three matches when Tal BenHaim (72) and Nosa Igiebor (59) canceled out Idan Vered’s (39) opener which gave Beitar the lead at the break.
Ben-Haim had a golden opportunity to clinch the three points in stoppage time, but his finish wasn’t good enough and Abuhazira headed in the equalizer in the fourth minute of added time after Jesus Rueda’s free-kick hit the crossbar, giving Beitar its third straight draw.
The foul which resulted in Rueda’s setpiece was committed by Maccabi substitute Barak Itzahki, who was on the verge of joining Beitar last week before Tel Aviv chose not to release him.
“This is football,” said Maccabi coach Shota Arveladze, whose team hosts Zenit St. Petersburg in their Europa League group stage opener on Thursday. “We just didn’t do enough to finish the game. We are disappointed of course.”
It took Beitar just 20 seconds to register its first chance of the night. Itay Shechter found himself with only goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic to beat, but he fired straight at the Serbian stopper who stood his ground.
The match had to be stopped in the sixth minute when a power outage struck the stadium in Netanya. It took nine minutes for the match to be renewed, but the next good scoring chance wouldn’t arrive until the 39th minute. Dor Micha surely thought his shot was on its way into the back of the net, only for Beitar ’keeper Boris Kleyman to keep the attempt out with an acrobatic save.
Beitar struck at the other end four minutes later. A well-worked team move ended with Shechter chesting the ball down to Vered who made no mistake with his finish. Maccabi’s equalizer arrived in the 59th minute, with Igiebor making the most of all the space he was afforded in the Beitar box to head in from Haris Medunjanin’s corner.
The hosts completed their comeback 13 minutes later. Maccabi broke its previous record for the most expensive transfer in Israeli soccer history last week when it agreed to pay Swedish side Malmo FF around
3.5 million euro for the services of Icelandic striker Vidar Orn Kjartansson. He played his role in Sunday’s win when Kleyman was adjudged to have brought him down in the box. Ben-Haim stepped up to score from the spot, but Abuhazira found the back of the net in the final second to share the spoils.