Israel round-up: Unhappy night for Hapoel

Hapoel Tel-Aviv missed a glorious opportunity to open a two-point lead over Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Maccabi Haifa as they were held to a goalless draw today.

Three-way tie
Hapoel, who have now gone two matches without a win, are level on 15 points at the top with Maccabi and Haifa, after the 0-0 draw at home against Maccabi Petach-Tikva. On Saturday, Haifa came down from the high of their UEFA Champions League win against Manchester United FC with a thump as they were beaten 4-0 at Beitar Jerusalem.

End of the line
After ending United's run of 16 unbeaten Champions League games with a 3-0 win at the GSP stadium in Nicosia last Tuesday, Haifa lost their unbeaten record in this season's Israeli Premier League with an emphatic defeat at the Teddy Stadium.

Two for Kubika
Beitar coach Eli Cohen was delighted as Andzej Kubika opened the scoring for his side against the run of play after 15 minutes from Ofer Talkar's cross, and 12 minutes later, goalkeeper Dudu Awat was beaten again, with Kubika scoring a terrific 25-metre drive.

Goalmouth scramble
Less than 60 seconds from the restart, Kubika could have completed his hat-trick as he was released by Itzik Zohar, but Awat charged off his line to pull a spectacular save. However, the goalkeeper could do little as Talkar emerged to score in a goalmouth scramble following a 70th-minute corner.

Awat fumble
To complete a miserable afternoon for Haifa, they had a shot cleared off the line and then conceded a fourth goal as Betar's Brazilian defender Indio charged all the way from his position at the heart of defence before hitting a shot straight at Awat, which the goalkeeper somehow fumbled into his own net.

Joy for Kfar-Saba
It was a much happier day for newly-promoted Hapoel Kfar-Saba, who recorded their first win of the season at Hapoel Petach-Tikva. Liron Zarko scored the opener in the 35th minute, Alon Mizrahi doubled Kfar-Saba's lead three minutes later and Yaniv Abargil made it 3-0 on 67 minutes before Stanislav Dobrovin scored a consolation goal for Petach-Tikva in the 76th minute.

Atar strikes twice
Reuven Atar was the man in form as Maccabi Netanya won 2-1 against Hapoel Ironi Rishon. Atar scored in the 15th and 58th minutes, either side of a Dani Albert equaliser, to give Netanya a win, and to add to their opponents' distress, Gzagoz Vedzinski was shown the red card after 69 minutes to lessen their hopes of a comeback.

Banin winner
In Saturday's other game, a goal from Tal Banin five minutes into the second half earned Maccabi Tel-Aviv a 1-0 away victory at FC Ashdod to take their tally to 15 points, while Friday's game saw  Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv draw 0-0 against Hapoel Beer-Sheva behind closed doors at the Teddy stadium.