Eran Zahavi scored a brace and Eden Ben Basat added a third as Maccabi eased past Hapoel Haifa 3-0 at the Netanya Municipal Stadium.
Eran Zahavi scored on either side of half time and Eden Ben Basat added a third in the 74th minute as Maccabi Tel Aviv returned to winning ways and eased past Hapoel Haifa 3-0 at the Netanya Municipal Stadium. The win brought Maccabi to within four points of the league leaders Ironi Kiryat Shmona, who three hours earlier on the same pitch drew against Hapoel Ra’anana. For Eran Zahavi it was his tenth and eleventh league goals of the season, adding an assist on Ben Bassat’s goal for good measure. Perhaps most pleasing for Maccabi was the fact that it was their first clean sheet since they beat Hapoel Ra’anana 2-0 at Bloomfield Stadium on September 21st.
The opening quarter of an hour belonged to Maccabi as they patiently passed the ball around but struggled to amount anything resembling a real chance. Only Zahavi appeared to carry on where he left off last Monday at Kiryat Shmona when four minutes into the match he once again hit the frame with a free kick from twenty yards out. In fact it was just past the quarter hour mark that against the run of play the visitors came up with the first real threat of the match when midfielder Yuval Shabtay's shot hit the crossbar and ricocheted out again. After that the pace of the match slowed and Maccabi created little in the way of opportunities. Until six minutes from the break that is, when the lull was broken and in style. Two double passes, first with striker Eden Ben Basat, then with fellow midfielder Dor Micha, sent Eran Zahavi between two Haifa defenders in front of the goal mouth and the electric midfielder sliced the ball past Haifa's Czech keeper Premysl Kovar to give the home side a 1-0 advantage going into the break.
The opening moments of the second half also provided little in the way of scoring opportunities, but just past the hour mark Nigerian midfielder Nosa Igiebor dispossessed Haifa's Hisham Kiwan in the Maccabi half and raced down the left flank before picking out Eran Zahavi in the middle. Once again Maccabi's top scorer displayed his skill in outrunning the defence to the right and striking back past Kovar into the far corner for his side's second on the night. On 70 minutes Dor Micha broke free down the right and crossed back into the centre where an unmarked Nikola Mitrovic struck a powerful low shot that Kovar was lucky to get a leg to in front of goal. Two minutes later though the Czech was not so lucky. In a move once again started by an exchange of passes between Igiebor and Zahavi on the left, the latter lifted a ball to Eden Ben Basat ahead of the Haifa defence in the area. The striker's intial chip over Kovan hit the crossbar, but Ben Bassat instinctively raced to get his head to the rebound, beating both Kovar and defender Liran Serdal to make it 3-0. There the scoring ended but Maccabi's romance with the woodwork continued six minutes from time when team captain Sheran Yeini hit the near post after getting free on the right of goal. At the final whistle Maccabi had three goals, three shots off the frame and three league points that narrowed the gap at the top of the table.
On Wednesday December 3rd, Maccabi will visit Bnei Sakhnin for a mid-week encounter in matchweek 11 of the Israel Premier League.
