In the 31st round of the Premier League's top playoff, Maccabi Haifa hosted Maccabi Netanya's Diamonds for an intriguing game, who have yet to win a top playoff. After two months without a win at "Sammy Ofer," they did so and came off the pitch with the upper hand with a narrow 0:1 victory over Maccabi Netanya, but there is no doubt that Maccabi Haifa needs to do an urgent 'bypass operation', this was a team of a herd without a shepherd. With all due respect to Maccabi Haifa's victory, we saw nothing. Is the team failing? Did something not work in the game today?
As you may recall, the Green fan organizations, the Green Monkeys, and the Ultras did not come to cheer on the Greens and boycotted the game because the Israel Police did not agree to bring cheering and amplification equipment to the stands at "Sammy Ofer." So we can tell you that only 17,120 spectators watched the game, including Maccabi Haifa fans: 16,822, and Maccabi Netanya fans: 298 spectators.
From the first minutes of the game, it was the Greens who unquestionably controlled the game, and in the 8th minute it was Dia Saba who, with the ball bursting from half court, raced into the box, kicked and the ball hit Jetei, misled the Netanya goalkeeper Niron and went in, thus Saba made it 0:1 to Maccabi Haifa.
In the second half, in the 57th minute, Barak Bachar made a double substitution in the game, with Ricardinho being replaced by Lior Refaalov and Guy Melamed replacing Dean David, who was weak. Netanya also showed that it knows how to play football, but missed the frame several times, and dominated the game. In a word, Maccabi Netanya was better in the game, without specifying that Maccabi Haifa is a weak team. Although Maccabi Haifa won the game, it was undoubtedly left with frustration and a bitter taste in its mouth, a messy team.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that the race for the league's top goal scorer has opened again. Saba scored his 17th goal this season in the league, thus moving closer to his Green teammate Guy Melamed, who already has 19 goals, some of which were scored while he was still playing for the Reds of Hapoel Haifa.
We would also like to add that during the game, Maccabi Haifa left defender Kenny Seif was injured and was taken away on a stretcher, suffering from a small tear in his hamstring. Seif is scheduled to be examined tomorrow and we will update his condition later, hoping it is not a serious injury.
