Hapoel Tel Aviv saw off Hapoel Petah Tikva 3-0 in the Ligat HaAl's fifth round on Friday evening. The hosts took all three points at the start of what should be an interesting season. To be fair, the result reflected the gap between sides that sits second and twelfth in the table.
Emmanuel Boateng opened the scoring in the tenth minute, then Chico added a second before half-hour mark. By then the visitors were already under pressure, and the pressure came to a head when Kimvuidi Keikie Karim picked up a red card in the forty-second minute. Things tightened up after that, with both teams making changes at the break.
The away side had to play the second half a man down, and Hapoel Tel Aviv came from the dead to make it three. Or Israelov turned the ball into his own net in the fifty-fifth minute, and the hosts kept knocking on the door with six big chances created. Emmanuel Boateng eventually came off in the seventy-second, having run the show for most of the first half.
The statistics tell the story without much embellishment. Hapoel Tel Aviv held 57 per cent possession, registered 106 attacks and hit the target four times from fifteen shots inside the penalty area. Their expected goals figure stood at 2.77, while Petah Tikva managed 0.54. The visitors had zero shots on target from three attempts inside the box, and their goalkeeper made only two saves.
The win moves Hapoel Tel Aviv up alongside the top half of the table, though they remain a point behind the leaders. Petah Tikva's defeat extends their winless run to four matches, and they now sit three points from safety. The draw brought them together early in the season, but the result suggests one side has found its shape already.
