After beginning the second round of the Toto League campaign on the right foot, Maccabi “Shachar” looked to avenge a first round loss against Bnei Sakhnin, this time under the watchful eyes of First Team Head Coach Peter Bosz and his assistant Hendrie Kruzen.
The first fifteen minutes of the match saw both sides checking each other out with neither team taking the bull by the horns early on. In the 16th minute Eylon Almog looked to have scored the game’s first goal on a gorgeous header, but it was ruled to be offside keeping the contest goalless. Two minutes later, Sakhnin had a chance to take the lead but Haviv Ohayon was in the right place to keep the ball out of the Maccabi goal.
Gaby Kanichowsky and Almog each had a quality chance just a few minutes later, with the former taking a deep pass from Omri Haramti and shooting the ball right into the opposing keeper’s hands while the latter’s one-on-one opportunity went wide of the goal. As the match began to settle down, the two teams went into the break knotted up at 0:0.
Maccabi “Shachar” came out for the second half like a house on fire as Haramati’s header went off the post and out. Finally in the 51st minute, the hosts would see their efforts pay dividends. Amit Rosenboim’s free kick went off of the post and right to Amit Shapira who chipped the ball over the keeper and the opposing players giving the Yellow-and-Blue a 1:0 lead. Following the goal, Head Coach Ziv Arie introduced Eden Kartzev in place of Shay Golan and four minutes later brought on Mahmoud Awesat for Almog.
The match remained close right to the final clicks of the clocks with efforts by Awesat and Kartzev not finding the back of the Sakhnin goal. In the 88th minute the visitors had a chance to draw even after the referee whistled for a penalty after a handball in the box. However, the Sakhnin keeper stepped up to take the spot kick and hit the bar as Ohayon controlled the ball and helped his side earn the valuable three points.
