Matchday 28 of the Toto Youth League pitted Maccabi against Hapoel in the second Tel Aviv Derby of the season at the Ramle Stadium. The young Yellow-and-Blue lost to Hapoel in the 90th minute of the team’s first encounter of the campaign as Ziv Arie’s charges looked to avenge the effect with just three games left. Oliel Peretz was unavailable as he was with the senior side and Haviv Ohayon was out due to an injury.
The Derby began with both side’s looking to impress. Maccabi had the first opportunity of the match when Eden Kartzev sent Guy Aviv a magnificent ball, but his effort was staved off for a corner kick. The home side continued to press with Kanichowsky, Dasa and Almog all testing their luck from outside of the box.
Finally, Maccabi struck in the 19th minute when Kartzev was pulled down in front of the goal good for an 11 meter spot kick. Tomer Altman stepped up and scored giving Arie’s side a 1:0 lead. However, Hapoel pulled even in the 33rd minute when Ibrahim Sfori beat keeper Hen Ozeri. 1:1 in the Derby.
If you thought that this was going to be the end of the scoring in the first half, you were mistaken as it didn’t take long for Almog to give Maccabi the 2:1 lead when his 25 meter effort beat the Hapoel keeper who was not in place to make the save. But with just three minutes left in the half, Hapoel drew even once again as Raz Itzhak scored from close in to head into the break at 2:2.
The second half began with the same players as both coaches opted to keep the same Starting XI on the pitch. As both clubs played a bit more tentatively, it took 20 minutes for Hapoel to break the deadlock as Eden Hershkowitz scored the Red’s third goal of the afternoon.
Arie made a double substitution looking to tie up the match as Omri Haramati and Yarin Sharabi were introduced for Or Dasa and Tomer Altman. With the contest nearing its end, Mahmoud Awesat and Amit Rosenboim also came on, but Maccabi “Shachar” couldn’t find the equalizer as they fell to Hapoel 3:2 in the final youth Derby of the season.
