The Maccabi Tel Aviv Under-19 club visited the Maccabi Netanya training facility on 
Matchday 18 of the Toto Youth League. Entering the match with a three game winning streak, Ziv Arie’s team had been playing terrific football of late as the coach made one change to last week’s starting lineup inserting Eden Kartzev in place of Omri Harami who had been in basic training for the majority of the week.
As the teams walked onto the pitch, the Yellow-and-Blue found themselves four points from the top of the table and leaders Maccabi Haifa. The hosts had the first chance of the day as a left side cross met the head of the Netanya striker but Haviv Ohayon was in place to knock the ball away. Immediately following the Netanya opportunity it was time for Maccabi to have a pair of chances but Gaby Kanichowsky and Eden Kartzev both couldn’t find the back of the goal.
In the 22nd minute Almog Eylon was fouled right outside of the box but his 17-meter free kick went wide of the goal. As the match hit the 30th tick of the clock, Ohayon kept his clean sheet intact as the young keeper made two fantastic saves to keep the game goalless.
However, that would change in the 42nd minute as the match hit the turning point with a beautiful goal by Oliel Peretz. Amit Shapira began the attack sending the ball to Almog who chipped it to Peretz who raced up the middle of the pitch and nutmegged the Netanya keeper giving the Yellow-and-Blue the lead as the sides headed into the break.
The first fifteen minutes of the second half saw Idan Yogev and Ran Vaturi pick up yellow cards and coach Ziv make a pair of substitutions bringing in Omri Haramati and Or Dasa in place of Shay Golan and Eden Kartzev. Almog then had a chance to double 
the Maccabi “Shachar” lead as he took a deep pass and made it through the defense but couldn’t find a way to put the ball past the keeper. Mahmoud Awesat was then brought into the match for Almog to try and find the elusive insurance marker.
Haviv Ohayon made sure to keep his side in the lead though, making another tremendous save with a quarter hour remaining in the contest. Haramati had an opportunity to add to the lead as he took a fabulous ball from Peretz but was also unable to beat the Netanya shot stopper as the match ended in a 1:0 win for Maccabi.
The victory moved the Yellow-and-Blue to within one point of first place Maccabi Haifa as the Greens fell to Hapoel Beer Sheva potentially setting up a massive game between the teams in just two weeks.
