Sheran Yeini today climbed to the fourth place in the all time appearance record for Maccabi, but this is not how he wished to celebrate his landmark. At the end of the 2-0 defeat to Hapoel Be’ersheva, Yeini said: “I am not relating to this statistic right now. We are angry first at ourselves, at the ability we displayed, at the battles we lost, at the fact we failed to maintain our stability and gave them confidence. I believe that with the experience we have here and the hard work – we will succeed”.

Maccabi’s coach Patrick van Leeuwen spoke after the 2-0 defeat to Hapoel Be’ersheva at Turner.

“We didn’t pay attention at the start of the game and should have been more attentive in the set pieces and in winning the fights if you have to go up” Van Leeuwen said. On the injury of Idan Nachmias who limped off with an injury, Van Leeuwen added: “I didn’t see exactly how the injury to Idan Nachmias happened, but it is obviously not nice if you have a player who is performing well, a new signing who is in good form gets injured in a game like this”.

On Eylon Almog’s late dismissal: “Regarding the red card, I will have to check what happened there, but I think there were too many decisions who were against us. In my opinion the opportunity they had, we should have been awarded a penalty for a handball that was ignored by the VAR. So although we didn’t deserve to win, we didn’t deserve to lose either”.

Pre Match

Boosted by the victory over Maccabi Haifa last Saturday, Maccabi arrived at Turner stadium aiming to maintain the momentum created at Bloomfield seven days earlier. Patrick van Leeuwen made no changes to his starting line-up that beat Haifa and sent out the same 11 players against Be’ersheva.

Daniel Peretz kept his place in goal with Idan Nachmias and Luis Hernandez as the two central defenders while Andre Geraldes and Ofir Davidzada completed the defensive back-four. Sheran Yeini led the team out with the captain’s armband making his 494th appearance to move above Avi Nimni into 4th place of the all-time appearance records. Dan Glazer joined Yeini at the heart of midfield with Dan Biton completed the midfield trio specifically assigned to supply the ammunition for the forward line.

Brandley Kuwas and Gabi Kanichowsky kept their places on both wings in support of Stipe Perica who will aim to continue his scoring spree which has now been stretched to three goals in as many successive matches. On the bench however, Van Leeuwen made a single change as Ido Shahar replaced Tal Ben Chaim amongst the substitutes who waited for their chance to make an impact.

First Half

Turner stadium was packed for the match which began with both teams trying to stamp their authority right from the start as tackles were flying-in as soon as the whistle was heard. A Brandley Kuwas tackle on Eugene Ansah near the byline and just inside Maccabi’s half saw referee Aviad Shiloah award Be’ersheva a free kick in the fourth minute. Helder Lopes whipped in the free kick before Danilo Asprilla rose above Maccabi’s defence and sent a header that beat Daniel Peretz at the far post.

Van Leeuwen was forced to make his first change in the 15th minute as Idan Nachmias limped-off with what seemed like a collarbone injury, as he was replaced by Matan Baltaxa. Be’eesheva came close to double their lead in the 22nd minute as Asprilla charged forward through the middle before releasing Ansah into the area. Be’eesheva’s forward had the time and space to beat Peretz, but the 21-year-old keeper saved with his feet to keep Maccabi in the game. Right on the half hour mark, Dor Micha limped off with a hamstring injury and was replaced at Be’ersheva by Ramzi Safuri.

Maccabi created their first serious chance in the 36th minute as a well-drilled free kick saw Dan Biton release Andre Geraldes whose cross was headed by Luis Hernandez over the crossbar. Be’ersheva continued to look dangerous on the counter attack as Ansah forced another save from Peretz in the 38th minute. Four minutes later, Maccabi exposed Be’ersheva’s defence with a counter attack of their own. But Kuwas’ attempt to score from close range which appeared to have beaten Ariel Harush, was cleared from the goalmouth by his defence.

Second Half

With no changes at halftime Maccabi emerged for the second half determined to try and get back into the game. In the 50^th minute however, Maccabi’s defence struggled to deal with Ansah as the ball fell to Safuri who forced another save from Peretz. Biton sent a powerful left foot shot from the edge of the area that narrowly missed the target on 53.

But a minute after the hour mark Be’erhseva doubled their lead as the combination of Ansah and Safuri resulted with an unstoppable left foot shot that gave Peretz no chance and made it 2-0.

Van Leeuwen responded with a triple change on 67 as Eden Shamir, Matan Hozez and Osama Khalaila replaced Biton, Kuwas and Stipe Perica. Van Leeuwen made his fifth and final substitution on 85 as Eylon Almog replaced Gabi Kanichowsky for the final five minutes.

Almog came close to cut the deficit in the 90th minute as he sent a powerful header after an Ofir Davidzada square ball, but Harush pulled a reflex save to claw the ball out for a corner. Almog’s misery was complete seconds later as he was shown the red card by the referee inside injury time.