Yellow-and-blue routs Acre

Maccabi Tel Aviv ensured itself another week at the top of the Premier League standings on Saturday with a comfortable 4-0 victory over rock-bottom Hapoel Acre at Bloomfield Stadium.

The yellow-and-blue lost 1-0 at Ashdod SC last week, failing to win for a fourth consecutive road match. However, Tel Aviv continued to reign supreme at Bloomfield on Saturday, claiming its ninth win in 10 home encounters.

Early goals by Dor Micha (8) and Shiran Yeini (12) effectively clinched the three points for Maccabi before Eliran Atar netted a second-half brace (54, 63) to take his tally for the season to 18 goals and improve Maccabi’s goal difference over its past five home wins to 21-3.

“We are playing very well here at Bloomfield and are more accurate than our road games,” said Maccabi coach Oscar Garcia after seeing his team open a five-point gap.

Second-placed Hapoel Tel Aviv visits Maccabi Haifa on Sunday, looking to close back to within two points of its arch-rival. However, Haifa has got momentum on its side entering Sunday’s showdown, with the Greens winning eight of their past nine games, outscoring their opponents 19-3.

Betar Jerusalem missed an opportunity to leapfrog Haifa into third place on Saturday, losing 1-0 to Bnei Yehuda at Teddy Stadium for its first defeat in nine matches.

Amir Agajev scored the only goal of the match in the 43rd minute, with Betar failing to replicate its form from recent weeks.

Earlier Saturday, Betar owner Arkadi Gaydamak announced that the club is set to sign Dzhabrail Kadiyev and Zaur Sadayev from Chechen club Terek Grozny.

The expected addition of the two Muslim players angered many of the Betar fans who reacted by singing racist anti-Arab songs during Saturday’s match.

Hapoel Ramat Hasharon climbed up to sixth place on Saturday, thrashing Bnei Sakhnin 4- 0 at Doha Stadium.

The visitors essentially secured the victory by the 19th minute, with Udo Fortune (7), Adrian Fernandez (13) and Efraim Taka (19) giving Ramat Hasharon a flying start before Asael Ben-Shabat (86) wrapped up the scoring.

Sakhnin dropped to 11th place after a 92nd-minute Omer Peretz goal gave Maccabi Netanya a 1- 1 draw against fellow-struggler Hapoel Ramat Gan.

David Manga (64) gave the visitors the lead, but Peretz’s stoppage- time header ensured Netanya clinched a precious point.

Also Saturday, Ironi Kiryat Shmona and Ashdod SC shared the points after a 0-0 deadlock.