Abdulai Sek returned from yellows at the expense of Shawn Goldberg who was ineligible, and thus started alongside Lorenzo Shimich as two brakes for the first time since the confrontation between them. In the opening minutes, the green defense was pressed and Antonio Sefer almost scored for the absent lineup of the guest, without Miguel Vitor and Roy Goranda among others, but after that the champion took control of things mainly through the wings and scored easily. Sek cooked for Dean David who shot in at the 25th minute and after five minutes completed a pair of assists from the goalkeeper Sherif Kiuf.
The striker reached 14 league goals, like his friend Franzi Pierro and only two less than top scorer Eran Zahavi, but before being replaced he made a huge miss in front of an empty net and missed an opportunity to celebrate the first hat trick of his career. He already has 13 doubles in the Premier League (four in the Ashdod uniform and nine in Maccabi Haifa, including four this season) but, as mentioned, no hat trick yet.
Precisely when Maccabi Haifa dropped a gear, the third goal came courtesy of Or Dadia who strangely hit his goal after a free kick by Lior Rafalov in the 63rd minute. Three minutes later, Pierre Curnot received an unnecessary yellow card that would cause him to miss the derby, but that didn’t stop the Greens from increasing the score with a move by the substitutes and the end of Podgorano’s first league goal in the 81st minute. In extra time, Beer Sheva managed to avoid another goalless loss in Haifa, when substitute Imran Ould Omar scored his first goal in Israel. His team would be happy for such a bomb in the Cup as well, Maccabi Haifa will try to reduce the gap from the top next week.
