Maccabi Tel Aviv continued to stride towards a first Premier League championship
since 2003 on Saturday night, beating Hapoel Ramat Hasharon 1-0 at Bloomfield
Stadium for its eighth straight win to extend its lead at the top to 13
points.
Rade Prica scored his sixth league goal in six matches in the
72nd minute on Saturday to ensure the yellow-and-blue will continue to hold a
double-digit over second-placed Maccabi Haifa, even should the Greens beat Bnei
Yehuda at Kiryat Eliezer Stadium on Sunday.
Hapoel Tel Aviv returned to
third place on Saturday, leapfrogging Ironi Kiryat Shmona with a 1-0 road win
over the Northerners despite ending the match with nine men.
Eden Shrem
scored Hapoel’s winner in the 57th minute, netting Tel Aviv’s first goal in open
play after 787 barren minutes.
A superb display by Hapoel ‘keeper Apoula
Edel combined with some good fortune ensured the Reds held on for all three
points despite Mor Shushan’s sending off in the 70th minute and Almog Cohen’s
red card one minute from time.
Beitar Jerusalem (33 points) hosts
rockbottom Hapoel Ramat Gan (25) on Sunday, holding just a six-point gap from
the relegation zone following Saturday’s results.
Hapoel Acre (27)
climbed off the bottom with its third win in five matches, beating Ashdod SC
(35) 2-1 on the road.
Ohad Kadusi (45) and Tamir Kahlon (70) scored for
Acre, with Dimitar Makriev (80) netting a consolation goal for the sorry
Ashdod.
Hapoel Beersheba (30) is just three points ahead of the
relegation zone after dropping to its fifth straight loss on Saturday, falling
2-1 to Bnei Sakhnin (29).
Mohammed Kalibat gave Sakhnin the lead in the
fifth minute and netted the winner three minutes from time after Nicolas Falczuk
leveled the score (38).
Hapoel Haifa (31) took another significant step
towards securing its top flight status on Saturday, thrashing Maccabi Netanya
(27) 3-0 for its fourth win in its past five matches.
Maharan Lala (8)
and Yuval Avidor (26, 39) clinched Haifa’s win by the break and extended the
team’s unbeaten streak to six games.
On Friday, Israel coach Eli Gutman
announced a 25-man squad for Friday’s 2014 World Cup qualifier versus Portugal
and next Tuesday’s game at Northern Ireland.
League-leader Maccabi Tel
Aviv had six players named in the squad, while captain Yossi Benayoun was also
called up despite not having played for the blueand- white since the 4-0
thrashing at the hands of Russia in September.
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