Maccabi TA fights back for sweet derby win

Yellow-and-blue dominate the second half to beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 4-2 at Bloomfield Stadium.

By ALLON SINAI
Maccabi Tel Aviv's Roberto Caulautti 370 (photo credit: Adi Avishai)
Maccabi Tel Aviv's Roberto Caulautti 370
(photo credit: Adi Avishai)
Maccabi Tel Aviv claimed another memorable win in an unforgettable season on Monday night, coming back from two-goals down to beat Hapoel Tel Aviv 4-2 at Bloomfield Stadium.
Maccabi already clinched the Premier League championship three weeks ago, while Hapoel entered Monday knowing it would end the campaign in third place.
However, the derby is always so much more about pride than it is about points and Monday’s showdown was no different.
Hapoel got off to an ideal start, with Shay Abutbul’s long ball slicing the Maccabi defense and leaving Tal Ben-Haim with the simple task of rounding ‘keeper Vincent Enyeama and firing into an empty net.
The Red fans were delirious eight minutes later when goalkeeper Apoula Edel doubled the advantage with an emphatic penalty after referee Liran Liani spotted Ignacio Fideleff pulling down Hanan Maman in the box.
Maccabi was fortunate not to find itself three goals down 10 minutes from the break, with Fideleff bluntly fouling Omer Damari in the box.
However, Liani chose to ignore the incident, which should have resulted in a red card for Fideleff as well as a penalty for Hapoel, and the referee made yet another shocking mistake one minute from halftime to hand Maccabi a lifeline.
Moshe Lugassi surged into the box and the slightest of nudges by Iyad Khutaba was enough for Liani to point to the spot.
Eran Zahavi made no mistake with the penalty and Maccabi was right back in the game.
The yellow-and-blue dominated the second half and deservedly leveled the score in the 68th minute thanks to a sensational free kick from 20 meters out by Maharan Radi.
Maccabi’s winner was only a matter of time after that, with substitute Roberto Colautti scoring moments after entering the match in the 82nd minute before Dor Micha completed the scoring with a clever shot in stoppage time.