The 26th round in the National League was closed today (Monday) with the decisions being made with the same result in all the pitches. In Moked, Maccabi Petah Tikva beat Hapoel Kfar Saba 0:2, AS Ashdod continued their bad performance and surrendered 2:0 to Bnei Yehuda. In addition, Hapoel AA Fachem won 0:2 over Maccabi Ahi Nazareth.
Maccabi Petah Tikva – Hapoel Kfar Saba 0:2
In the shadow of reports about the transfer of the club’s rights to another party, Bnei Lam’s apprentices knew they had to win after Hapoel PAT won and opened a gap of 5 points at the top. Indeed, Maccabi Petah Tikva was better than everyone throughout most of the game, beating Hapoel Kfar Saba 0:2 and narrowing the gap from the city rival in first place to two points. In addition, it moved 4 points away from Tiberias Municipal in third place.
Moti Barshatsky delivered a wonderful deep pass and left Tal Ben Haim alone in front of the goal, the latter did not get confused and with a tremendous finish to the connections put the hosts ahead in the 28th minute. Six minutes from the start of the second half, Arad Bar kicked from the edge of the box to the corner of the goal and determined the result of the game.
the winning coach, Benny Lem, concluded: “Even in the last game in Jaffa we played good football and today there were episodes of excellent football as well. We start to understand each other and it starts to connect. It was important to create continuity after Jaffa.”
“We don’t need to consider the rivalry. As soon as we win, it doesn’t matter what the others do. There are football players in our link, football is starting to be the way I want it.” On the placement of Ben Haim as a right defender: “Tal is serious, Tal is good and he can play in any role. He is an excellent player that we earn and we will earn him.”
On the alignment of the generations with Ran Kozhuk, which was revealed on ONE: “It’s behind me, as soon as we shook hands yesterday. That he will continue to succeed, that Maccabi Netanya will succeed and most importantly that Maccabi Petah Tikva will move up to the league.”
Hapoel Kfar Saba coach, Omar Peretz, concluded: “I don’t know if we paid respect, but it seemed that Maccabi Petah Tikva was above us. We were soft, we lost easy balls and we didn’t cope with their pressure. They deservedly won”
“Maccabi Petah Tikva could have even increased the result, we knew it was a mine because this is the quality team in the league. I expected it to look better, you can accept a loss but it was too easy a loss and that’s what disappoints me. It’s over, the next game is not like this and we’ll have to recalculate the route.”
The fight for the top playoffs: “We are at the end of the round and we should not approach the next games with this attitude. Until now we were in a good period and looked strong defensively and offensively, in this game nothing worked. We will come tomorrow, we will tell them that this game is history and nothing should be taken from it and we will move on to Tiberias.”
28th minute, a goal! Maccabi Petah Tikva took the lead 0:1: Moti Barshatsky with a great pass left Tal Ben Haim one on one in front of the goalkeeper, the latter with a great finish to the connections put his team in the lead.
51st minute, a goal! Maccabi Petah Tikva took the lead 0:2: Ilya Shkorin passed to Ard Bar who joined from behind and the latter kicked from the edge of the box to the left corner of the goal.
AS Ashdod – Bnei Yehuda 2:0
After not winning three rounds, Bnei Yehuda came back to win and beat El Adumim Ashdod 0:2. Yaniv Mizrahi decided the match when he scored a great pair (46′, 80′) and raised his team to sixth place in the table. The hosts from last place in the table count eight consecutive games without a win and it seems that there is no escape from relegation to League A at the end of the season.
46th minute, a goal! Bnei Yehuda took the lead 0:1: Ala Jaafar the pick-up from the right wing, Matan Zalmanovich touched the ball and deflected it to Yaniv Mizrahi who kicked into the net.
80th minute, a goal! Bnei Yehuda took the lead 0:2: Claude Louis broke through on the left wing and made a great cross, Yaniv Mizrahi remained alone in the center in the area and completed a brace.
Maccabi Ahi Nazareth – Hapoel Umm Al Fachem 2:0
Adham Ahdia’s team continues to dream and won 0:2 over Achi Nazareth in the sector derby. Isaac Norti scored first in the 32nd minute and Gil Yitzhak doubled in the 86th minute. Umm Al Fahem is equal in points to Tiberias City in third place and is 4 points away from Maccabi Petah Tikva in second place. Eldad Shavit’s team, on the other hand, is in 12th place and is counting its third loss in a row, having not scored a goal in any of the games.
Minute 32, a goal! Hapoel AA Fachem took the lead 0:1: Isaac Northey took advantage of a bad clearance by the hosts’ defense and kicked to net his team’s advantage.
86th minute, a goal! Hapoel AA Fachem took the lead 0:2: A great double pass between Hativ and Gil Yitzhak ended with the latter kicking into the net.