Beitar beats Hap Haifa in goal-fest at Sammy Ofer Stadium

Lidor Cohen headed in the winner three minutes later to the delight of the 4,000 traveling Beitar fans.

By ALLON SINAI
Beitar Jerusalem players (photo credit: ERAN LUF)
Beitar Jerusalem players
(photo credit: ERAN LUF)
Guy Levy’s perfect start to life as the coach of Beitar Jerusalem continued on Monday night with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Hapoel Haifa at Sammy Ofer Stadium.
Beitar moved up to fourth place with its second straight win under Levy since he replaced Menahem Koretzki two weeks ago, with Lidor Cohen securing Jerusalem’s victory six minutes from time after Haifa had equalized on three separate occasions.
“I have to say that I inherited a good team and I’m happy that we are already recording good results,” said Levy.
Itzik Cohen gave Beitar the lead after nine minutes and had a goal wrongly disallowed for an offside three minutes later. Haifa made the most of the reprieve, with Maharan Lala equalizing in the 36th minute.
However, Beitar still took a lead into the break, with new signing Liviu Antal scoring from the penalty spot one minute from the halftime interval.
Lala leveled the score yet again in the 64th minute, only for Lidor Cohen to make it 3-2 seven minutes later.
Tosaint Ricketts looked to have given Haifa a share of the spoils in the 81st minute, but Lidor Cohen headed in the winner three minutes later to the delight of the 4,000 traveling Beitar fans.
Meanwhile, Menahem Koretzki was introduced as the new coach of Hapoel Petah Tikva on Monday, replacing Idan Bar-On who was sacked a day earlier.
Koretzki, who was fired by Beitar just two weeks ago, will have his work cut out for him at Petah Tikva, which currently sits in the relegation zone, four points from safety after going winless in its past nine games.