On Dec 25th, Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Haifa will play a match in Sakhnin in a meeting of these two evenly matched Ligat ha’Al teams. Weather on match day is looking like a cloudy and cool day, with daytime temperatures of only 10 degrees, which should make for a nice day for football. 3rd placed Bnei Sakhnin is fresh off their 1-0 shutout win against Maccabi Petah Tikva. Beram Kayal struck first for Bnei Sakhnin in the 35th minute on a penalty kick, and that was all the excitement the two teams could muster At the end of 90 a dissapointed Maccabi Petah Tikva couldn’t manage to score, and Bnei Sakhnin took the shutout win. With 17 points in their last 10 matches Bnei Sakhnin should be reasonably happy with their performance, while in their last match, 1st placed Maccabi Haifa, recorded a 1-0 shutout win against Hapoel Hadera. Dean David struck first for Maccabi Haifa in the 34th minute, and with that single goal the scoring was complete. Neither team could manage anything else At the end of 90 a dissapointed Hapoel Hadera couldn’t manage to score, and Maccabi Haifa took the shutout win. Maccabi Haifa is on a hot streak lately, with 8 wins in their last 10 matches.
Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Haifa last played eachother at the Sammy Ofer Stadium on Saturday Sep 11th. Maccabi Haifa was victorious by a score of 2 to 1. Omer Atzili struck first for Maccabi Haifa in the 70th minute on a penalty shot, then Raz Stein tied it up for Bnei Sakhnin in the 86th minute on a penalty shot.
Maccabi Haifa is fortunate enough to have Dean David in top form. In the last five matches the attacker has scored 7 goals. Bnei Sakhnin’s most prolific scorer has been Guy Melamed. The Israeli attacker has netted 3 goals over the last 5 matches.