Pregame
Three days after being held to a 1-1 draw by Ashdod at Bloomfield, both sides lined-up against each other in the Quarter Finals of the State Cup. With a ticket in the Semi Final at stake, Maccabi’s coach Patrick van Leeuwen made several changes to his starting line-up. Eytan Tibi stepped-in for Matan Baltaxa as the partner of Louis Hernandez at the heart of defense that other than that remained unchanged. Eden Karzev and Dan Glazer returned to the heart of midfield to partner Dor Peretz as the midfield trio.
Eduardo Guerrero who made a second half substitute appearance against Ashdod returned to the front-line on one wing as did Tal Ben Chaim and Nick Blackman who were both rested on Sunday. Aleksandar Pesic, Matan Hozez, Avi Rikan and Sheran Yeini all dropped to the bench waiting for their chance to make an impact alongside Etey Shechter and Ofir Davidzada.
First Half
Maccabi began the match with pressure on Ashdod right from the off but despite the fact most of the play was in the home side’s half, Yoav Geraffi wasn’t required to do much. Eduardo Guerrero looked lively down the right flank but a cross he sent in couldn’t find the heads of Tal Ben Chaim or Nick Blackman.
Ashdod were forced to make a change early in the game as Timothy Awani was stretchered off and replaced by Omri Ben Harush on 27. Dor Peretz came close with a flying close range header on the stroke of halftime following another Guerrero cross, but Geraffi pulled a spectacular save which wouldn’t have counted anyway as the midfielder was deemed to have been offside.
Second Half
Van Leeuwen made his first substitution after the interval as Sheran Yeini replaced Dan Glazer for the restart. Ashdod on the other hand made the same change they did at Bloomfield on Sunday as Ya’acov Brihon came in this time for Moussa Bagayoko.
In the 52nd minute Maccabi launched a counter attack that resulted with Ben Chaim breaking through being fouled on the edge of the area by Tom Ben Zaken. Peretz stepped-up to take the free kick which he powerfully side-footed low only to be deflected past Geraffi and break the deadlock.
Aleksandar Pesic and Yonatan Cohen came-in for Blackman and Ben Chaim right on the hour mark as Van Leeuwen added more firepower upfront.
Five minutes later, Cohen sent a cross which rolled across the face of goal with Guerrero launching himself to try and push the ball home but the Panamanian forward couldn’t connect. An Enric Saborit cross was headed towards goal by Peretz forcing Geraffi to stretch himself and deny Maccabi a second goal.
Van Leeuwen made his two last changes as Avi Rikan and Matan Hozez replaced the industrious Karzev and the tired Guerero for the final 12 minutes. Yeini fired a left foot shot from the edge of the area that crept to the wrong side of Geraffi’s post on 82. Hozez who just came in, pulled his hamstring yet remained on the pitch in-order not to leave the team to fight with 10 men for the closing stages. The injury gave way as Hozez couldn’t continue and was stretchered off before the referee indicated 6 minutes of added time.
Ashdod tried everything in a desperate bid to clinch a late equaliser but Maccabi defended bravely until Idan Leiba’s full time whistle that secured Maccabi’s place in the Semi Finals.
