Maccabi Tel Aviv Hapoel Beersheva

 

Last night Maccabi Tel Aviv hosted Hapoel Beer Sheva in the 18th round of the Israeli Premiere (Winner) league trailing their league leading local rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv by a point . But just five minutes into the match it was clear that that was about to change. Steve Gohouri, subbing for the injured Carlos Garcia, found himself with space in the area and placed a perfectly angled ball into the corner of the net  that wrong-footed Beer Sheva keeper Gil ben Sha'anan and put Maccabi out in front 1-0. Beer Sheva responded with a high ball into the area that found Boyan Markovich who headed it onto MTA keeper Barak Levi's crossbar. Recognising the potenal danger, Maccabi Tel Aviv wasted no time in adding to their advantage and with twelve minutes gone Eliran Atar took advantage of a Beer Sheva defensive mix-up in the box to double the Yellows' lead to 2-0. The Yellows continued to attack and just before the half they were on the break when Maharan Radi  placed a  perfectly measured pass onto the foot of, who else, Eliran Atar, who slotted home into an open Beer Sheva net to complete his first-half brace and put Maccabi up 3-0 before the half-time whistle.

Picture Gallery

In the second half Beer Sheva tried to get back into the match, with Siraj Naser coming close with a free kick that bounced off Maccabi keeper Barak Levi's side bar. But Levi, subbing for the Africa duty-bound Vincent Enyeama, needed no help from the woodwork in saving from Beer Sheva's Tomer Suissa when Hapoel Beer Sheva were later awarded a penalty for a Maccabi hand ball in the area. And the Yellows were not about to sit on their lead either. Two minutes after the debut appearance of Maccabi Tel Aviv's latest acquisition, the Swedish striker Rade Prica, who came on as a substitute for Dor Micha, Maharan Radi took advantage of yet more Beer Sheva defensive confusion in the area to pounce on the ball and smash it into Reds' keeper Ben Sha'anan's net for Maccabi's fourth goal of the evening. And twelve minutes later Ben Sha'anan was once again fishing a goal, Maccabi's fifth, out of his net, this time from Moshe Lugassi, who latched on to already acclimatised Rade Prica's back heel pass and fired it accurately past the hapless Beer Sheva keeper. And if that wasn't enough misery for the visitors from the south, the 86th minute saw their young midfielder Firas Awed red carded for an ugly tackle on Yoav Ziv.

 

 

 

Next week (Saturday, 7.30 P.M.) will see Maccabi Tel Aviv travelling down the coast for their 19th round match against M.S. Ashdod.