Itzik towards |
Hapoel Beer Sheva players celebrate (Reuven Schwartz)
After the dramatic victory over Beitar Jerusalem in the previous round and with a perfect away record, Hapoel Beer Sheva will meet Maccabi Haifa today (Sunday) at 20:30 at Sami Ofer, with its goal first of all not to lose. As of this moment, the gap from the Greens stands at 4 points, knowing that a loss will increase the gap to 7 – a gap that Beer Sheva will not be able to reduce.
“We understand the importance of the game,” they said in the capital of the Negev, “we have a lot of respect for Maccabi Haifa, they are the best team in Israel and we see it in the table. We know they are favorites, in Sami Ofer, that’s clear, but we’ll give everything we have. Provocations? Let’s come play football, we hope that Maccabi Haifa will also deal with football and not put pressure on the referee.”
In Be’er Sheva they come to the game with great vigilance because the gap from Haifa will increase to 7 points and the Reds’ coach Eliniv Barda is trying to think of ways to prevent this. In light of Maccabi Haifa’s perfect balance in Sami Ofer, Barda is struggling to stop the champion. The coach is debating about the formation and the link trio – whether to start with a line of five defensive players or four, and whether to start with a more defensive trio.
Ayad Abu Abid returns from a red card suspension and is expected to start in the lineup alongside Miguel Vitor. Despite Shagib Yehezkel’s lack of defensive experience in games at this level, he is expected to start when Shay Elias, Eden Shamir, Shafi Suleimanov and Ramzi Spuri will also start. If Verda decides to go up with a more controlled link, Roy Gordana will start together with Elias and Shamir.
Rotem Hatuel, who was absent from most training this week due to pain in his abdominal muscles, had full training yesterday and today and may start. Hatuel underwent an X-ray, in which no damage to the abdominal muscles was found. Barda is debating about Hatuel as a central striker, or whether to bring up the experienced Tomer Hamed.
