Lesson in releasing pressure: 2:3 Important for Maccabi Haifa over Maccabi Netanya | Israel Hayom

The match between Maccabi Netanya and Maccabi Haifa felt like a hand-wringing battle. Each tried to stay over the sponge, not go all the way down. There are no defenses in hand downs, each team attacked to get the other down to the end and that led to a flood of goals in the first half. Maccabi Haifa started strong, but failed to score and in football, if you are not ready for a moment, the opponent drops you. One corner ended with an easy goal by Igor Zlatanovic (11). But at such an early minute you don't reach submission and certainly when your opponent is the champions, who knew that after three games without a win, if they went all the way down, it would be difficult for them to rise later on.

Charon Sherry is a dominant captain and along with Frantzdi Piero, the Greens are back. Sari Dike scored a penalty after a mistake and Raz Carmi's foul on Arik Shuranov and the green and yellow hands returned to the center. The high tempo continued, the effort of both teams was tremendous, Rachid Chirino restored the advantage to Netanya (37), Frantzdi Piero made 2:2 (41, assist for Sherry) and after one half, neither team brought the other all the way down.

Both teams knew that if the mistakes of the goalkeepers and defenses continued, it could end badly for them, but Haifa has Piero. With his size and good ability, he and Sherry were the ones who constantly pulled to the green side. Pierrot activated all his size (and he has) and subdued the defense in every fight. At the important moment, he was there for a Halaili's cross ball and finished off a green attack with a 2-3 turnover. At this stage, Maccabi Haifa was not looking to be nice or give the fourth that would bring Maccabi Netanya down to the sponge. She held her hand close to the edge until the end, until Netanya surrendered.

Photos: Bernie Ardov

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