Hapoel Beersheba crushed Hapoel Tel Aviv 5-1 to punch its ticket to the Israel State Cup final, where it will face Beitar Jerusalem in late May.
The Southern Reds dominated the matchup as Paul Garita scored a first-half brace against the second-division Leumit League squad, which came into the contest with high hopes of stunning the Premier League table leader.
Hapoel Tel Aviv began attacking from the outset as Stav Turiel’s early chance just went over the bar, while Turiel sent the ball to Yazan Nassar, who missed a wide-open chance in the 10th minute.
Beersheba began to pick up the pace and broke the ice when Garita headed home the opening marker off an Amir Ganah ball, while Iuri Medeiros doubled the advantage off a Helder Lopes cross 10 minutes later for a commanding 2-0 lead. Hapoel Tel Aviv coach Elyaniv Barda made wholesale substitutes to try and stem the tide and halt the snowball, but that didn’t stop Ganah from picking off the defender and easily slotting the ball home, while Garita nodded in the fourth strike as Ron Kozuk’s team went into the break with a 4-0 advantage.
Matan Baltaxa was sent off very early in the second half after being issued a pair of yellow cards, which left Beersheba with 10 men and gave a lifeline to Hapoel Tel Aviv. But Kozuk made a trio of substitutes to freshen up his squad. Roei Alkukin took advantage of the extra man as he came all alone into the box and curled in a beauty of a goal behind Ofir Marciano in the 62nd minute to cut the lead to 4-1.
A gorgeous free-kick
Hapoel Tel Aviv tried to pull back another marker, but Beersheba still had quality chances, as Dan Bitton scored a gorgeous free-kick goal over the Hapoel Tel Aviv wall to close out the win.
“Right now we have done nothing,” Beersheba bench boss Kozuk began. “The current champion is Maccabi Tel Aviv and the cup holder is still Maccabi Petah Tikva. Sure, I have to say ‘wow, what a game,’ but we – me and my team – are aiming high. It doesn’t matter who our opponent is, we are just concerned with who we are, Hapoel Beer Sheva.
We want to do the things that we want to do game after game regardless of our opponent. As for completing the double by winning the league title and the State Cup, we have to press the reset button every day, and as long as we look at ourselves it will be fine.”
Bitton, who scored the final goal, added: “We respected Hapoel Tel Aviv, we came into the game with a great attitude and that’s what made the difference. There’s no doubt, it’s great fun to score, but the main thing is that we won. I realize that winning the Double is possible at the end of the season, but we haven’t achieved anything yet. We have to keep working hard. I always believe and strive for the best. There will be a tough game against Beitar Jerusalem in the final.”
“It’s not easy to end a game like that, certainly a semifinal,” Hapoel Tel Aviv’s Barda said. “But this year’s State Cup competition ended up being a very nice journey that we took as a team. We faced the best team in the country and I think that the second half better reflected the gap between us, and not so much the first half. We started the game well with a very good quarter hour of play, but then their quality took over. The mistake that led to the fourth goal really ended the game. This was an excellent lesson for us heading into the Premier League next season, and it’s something that we learned from.”
In Israeli league play, Beitar Jerusalem bested Maccabi Tel Aviv 3-1 as the hosts turned up the offense in the second half to take the three points and the win.
Eran Zahavi had a chance to give the yellow-and-blue a lead from the penalty spot, but couldn’t convert. After a goalless first half, the yellow-and-black broke the deadlock thanks to Mayron George’s 53rd-minute strike, while Jean Marcelin doubled the advantage less than a quarter-hour later. Osher Davida pulled Maccabi to within a goal in the 84th minute, but Yarin Levy scored deep into second-half stoppage time to close out the victory.
Barak Itzhaki, Beitar’s head coach, said: “I’ll tell you a little secret – I told the players before the game that I’m sure the media and football people in general say I’m a brave coach – but all the credit goes to the players because without them I wouldn’t have been brave. We played with strength. I felt like we were in the game and I knew that as it developed, we would be there even more and more. We succeeded, certainly in the second half when the game was already open and players like Yarin Levy or Yarden Shua were waiting in these areas – it could have ended with an even bigger result.”
Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Zarko Lazec was visibly distraught after the game.
“A big disappointment, but we don’t have time to be disappointed. We have to keep fighting. In the first half we had a lot of good situations, but we weren’t calm enough on the last pass. We missed a penalty and the momentum changed after that. We conceded after a mistake, but that’s part of football.”
