An Eran Zahavi record-breaking brace and individual efforts from Omri Ben Harush and Barak Badash send Maccabi flying past Hapoel Acre
Tonight (Sunday) Maccabi Tel Aviv made the short trip north to Netanya as guests of Hapoel Acre, still serving out a home-match ban, in matchweek 5 of the Israeli Premier League. Acre proved very gracious hosts indeed, gifting the visitors a penalty only six minutes in courtesy of their striker Yuval Avidor, who used a "hands-on" approach to block a free kick in his own area. That gave the opportunity to Maccabi's prolific midfielder Eran Zahavi to establish a new Israeli record – by converting the awarded penalty he became the country's first footballer to score in ten consecutive league games, surpassing the record nine first established 17 years ago by Hapoel Petach Tikva striker Motti Kakon. A minute later Acre's Albanian international striker Hamdi Salihi attempted an equaliser but saw his effort stroked away for a corner. On the quarter hour mark Maccabi were 0-2 up after striker Barak Badash skipped round a defender and found Eran Zahavi to his right in oceans of space twenty metres out. Zahavi fired a powerful shot that took a bounce before bypassing Acre keeper David Goresh and landing in the net, Zahavi's second of the match and his sixth league goal in five matches. In a two-minute space just past the half hour mark Maccabi's Serbian midfielder Nikola Mitrovic and young defender Dor Peretz both had a go from a distance but it was fellow defender Omri Ben Harush who succeeded in putting Maccabi ahead 0-3 four minutes from the break with a splendid left-footed strike that flew past the Acre keeper into the upper part of the net.
The second half began more sluggishly but on 71 minutes Omri Ben Harush found substitute midfielder Dor Micha free to the right of the goal. The young international returned the ball to the centre of the area where Barak Badash awaited in space, and the 6 foot 1 inch striker slammed home for 0-4. In the remaining twenty minutes of regulation time, Hapoel Acre twice mounted attempts to pull one back, first by Hamdi Salihi and then Yuval Avidor, but both missed their mark. At the other end a long-range effort by midfielder Mahran Radi eight minutes from time found David Goresh at the ready. Not until a minute and a half into injury time were Hapoel Acre able to conjure up a goal when a clever forward pass found Hamdi Salihi ahead of the Maccabi defence. Maccabi keeper Juan Pablo got a finger-edge close to his angled shot from the area, but not close enough to prevent it from finding the far post and returning into the net to finish off proceedings at 1-4.
This Wednesday Maccabi Tel Aviv play a mid-week fixture, hosting Ashdod FC at Bloomfield Stadium at 7.45pm.
