A dramatic game between Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Haifa: a controversial penalty, red cards and a close table • Hali Roa

On Monday 6/1/25 the Maccabi Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem teams met for a particularly lively game, in which Maccabi Haifa, which is in third place in the table, could open a gap with Beitar Jerusalem which is in fourth place and cling to the leader of the table with a gap of 2 points.

Beitar Jerusalem started the game strongly with high pressure and tried to gain an early advantage, but the Haifaites managed to repel every attempt until the 2nd minute of the extra time of the first half, when a penalty was whistled in favor of the Jerusalemites. Jordan Shua went to kick, but was stopped by Sharif Kioff, the goalkeeper of the greens, however, managed to find the net on the return ball.

A foul at the beginning of the move

According to the Greens, the whistle for a penalty was not justified on the grounds that there was a foul on one of the team's players at the beginning of the move. This led to an argument among the Maccabi Haifa players about the referee, following which Ali Muhammad received two yellow cards and a red, leaving his team with ten players before the end of the first half.

At the beginning of the second half, the Greens were looking for the equalizer and in the 60th minute, Die Saba found himself alone against Miguel Silva, goalkeeper of Beitar Jerusalem, who committed a foul outside the box. Silva received a red card, and Beitar was also down to ten men.

compare the result

Seven minutes later, with an accurate pass from Lior Rafalov, Kenny Seif kicked from outside the box and tied the score at 1:1. For about a quarter of an hour after the equalizer, both teams tried to find an advantage goal. Maccabi Haifa pressed high and reached more scoring opportunities, but in the 83rd minute Beitar Jerusalem went on a burst that led to a goal advantage, 2:1 in favor of the yellow-blacks and five minutes later, again in the burst, Beitar found the defense of the greens exposed and determined the result The game, 3:1.

Maccabi Haifa, who came into this game as the favorite to win and with a golden opportunity to stick with Maccabi Tel Aviv in second place and Hapoel Beer Sheva in first place, came out disappointed. The disappointment was also great among her fans, who showed impressive encouragement throughout the game.