June 28, 1947 The Maccabiah Stadium, Tel Aviv. In the year that determined the fate of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv advanced to the State Cup Final against Beitar Tel Aviv. Over the course of the season, Maccabi defeated Hapoel Atlit, Hapoel Ramat Gan-Givatayim and Maccabi Petah Tikva on the way to kicking off against their city rival in a Tel Aviv Derby. Beitar in fact had already won one Derby during the campaign defeating Hapoel in the second round. The smell of war was in the air prior to the declaration of independence and only 15K fans had the privilege to watch one of the most dramatic finals of all time with an end that no one had expected.
Maccabi Tel Aviv took the lead in the 23rd minute thanks to a goal by Yosele Merimovitch, but Natan Pantz drew his side even in the 57th minute. Yehoshua Glazer gave the lead back to the Yellow & Blue just one minute later and Meromovitch helped Maccabi to a 3:1 lead with his second of the match in the 64th minute as the final looked like it was all sewed up.
However, Beitar cut the lead thanks to a Shimon Alfasi strike in the 78th minute and looked to have scored with just two minutes left to go in the contest to draw even. But the referee called off the goal and the Beitar fans invaded the pitch as their midfielder Yom Tov Menasherov took advantage of the situation and ran off with the State Cup.
Once the fan situation was under control and due to the fact that the match was stopped, Maccabi Tel Aviv was awarded the title via a technical victory to capture their 6th State Cup.