Maccabi Ahi Nazareth beat Hapoel Acre 1:0 in the Liga Leumit on Thursday, a result that leaves the visitors still searching for their first point of the season. The home side took the lead through M. Abu Ras in the thirtieth minute, then had to see out the match with ten men after he was sent off eight minutes later. Hapoel Acre were reduced to eight players by the fifty-eighth minute, with two further dismissals for Y. Toumagnon and A. Azem.
It was a match where the away side dominated possession and created more chances, yet could not find a way past the hosts. Hapoel Acre registered 63 attacks compared to 47, and had 13 shots to the home side's seven, but the scoreline told a different story. By then, the red cards had changed everything, and the game settled into something far less open than the statistics suggested.
The visitors have now lost all five of their opening games, failing to score a single goal across the run. Their recent results read like a catalogue of heavy defeats: 0:4 away at Ashdod, 0:5 against Kiryat Yam, 0:3 at Bnei Yehuda. They are bottom of the table with zero points, and this result extends a streak that is becoming difficult to watch.
Maccabi Ahi sit in fourteenth place with four points, and this victory gives them something to build on. Their form has been inconsistent — a 3:3 draw with Hapoel Kafr Shalem followed by a 1:2 loss to Maccabi Bnei Raina — but they showed resilience after losing their goalscorer. To be fair, they did not need much after that, and they held on.
The statistics tell a tale of dominance without return. Hapoel Acre had 60 percent of possession, 8 shots off target and 5 on target, yet they could not convert any of it. Maccabi Ahi managed 3 shots on target and 4 off, and one of them found the net. It is a reminder that possession and volume do not always equal progress.