The Yellow & Blue travelled south for a Matchday 8 contest against Hapoel Beer Sheva and fell to the southern side 2:1 on goals by Tony Nwakaeme and Ben Sahar while Omer Atzily cut the lead late in the contest. Hatem AlHamid was issued two yellow cards and was sent off early on in the contest but Maccabi couldn’t take advantage of the man advantage.
Head Coach Jordi Cruyff’s Starting XI had Serbian keeper Predrag Rajikovic in goal with a defensive quartet of Yuval Shpungin, Tal Ben Haim, Jean-Sylvain Babin and Ofir Davidzada in front of him. Captain Sheran Yeini anchored the midfield as Cristian Battocchio and Avi Rikan played by his side while Nick Blackman, Omer Atzily and Vidar Kjartansson provided the attack.
Available on the bench were keeper Daniel Tenenbaum, Eliran Atar, Eitan Tibi, Matan Baltaxa, Tino Susic, Dor Peretz and Or Dasa.
First Half
Maccabi almost struck first in the 5’ as Battocchio’s free kick into the box found Babin’s head but the ball went out to the right of the goal. Nwakaeme lofted a ball into the box but Davidzada sent it out for a corner in the ‘8 as Mahran Radi long drive hit Rajikovic’s left post and was cleared to safety.
Hatem AlHamid was handed a yellow card in the 15’ and was given his second 6 minutes later after pulling down Vidar which resulted in a red card leaving Beer Sheva with 10 men for the contest. Atzily’s 22’ free kick to the right of the goal found Babin’s head but he missed the target as Maccabi looked to take advantage of the extra man.
In the 33’ Davidzada found Rikan on a run into the box but Dudu Goresh made the diving stop when he attempted to send the ball to Vidar, while Yeini’s chance four minutes later from long distance went over the goal. The sides went into the break goalless.
Second Half
The second half opened up with Maccabi on the attack as they looked for a goal. But it was Beer Sheva with the first chance as Radi’s long range low liner just went wide left of the goal in the 53’. Vidar had back to back header chances in the box to no avail in the 60’ while Ofir Davidzada picked up a yellow card one minute later.
Tony Nwakaeme then went into the box from the left side and put the ball into the far right hand corner for a 1:0 Beer Sheva lead. The goal prompted Head Coach Jordi Cruyff to make his first substitute of the match inserting Eliran Atar in place of Avi Rikan. Unfortunately, the hosts found the back of the goal yet again in the 68’ when Ben Bitton went into the box and Sahar put the ball behind Rajikovic for a 2:0 lead.
Atar’s 73’ chance just went wide of the goal and one minute later Mihaly Korhut was issued a yellow card. Cruyff made his second substitute in the 80’ when Tino Susic came on for Shpungin as Atzily’s effort from outside of the box flew over the bar two minutes later. Atzily was able to cut the Beer Sheva lead to 2:1 in the 89’ when his low shot went into the back of the goal but it wouldn’t be enough on this night as Maccabi fell 2:1 down south.
