Maccaabi Haifa claimed three points at the start of the Ligat Ha'Al campaign, beating Hapoel Ramat-Gan 2:1 on Saturday. The hosts opened the scoring through Bruninho in the twenty-second minute, then doubled their lead just after half-time. M. Plakushchenko gave the visitors hope with an equaliser in the sixty-first, but Bruninho had done enough to see his side through.
The early goal set the tempo, and Maccaabi kept pushing. Bruninho struck again in the forty-sixth minute, and the visitors were suddenly chasing the game. Plakushchenko pulled one back shortly after the hour, and everything opened up again. E. Azoulay missed a penalty in the eighty-ninth minute — a cruel end for Hapoel, who had created nothing of note all afternoon.
And here's the thing about the numbers: Maccaabi had six shots on target and only found the net twice. They dominated possession at 57 per cent, registered 98 attacks compared to 71, and their expected goals figure of 2.32 told the story of a side that controlled the game. Hapoel's goalkeeper made four saves from just one shot on target, a reminder that chance creation had been one-sided.
By then, the result mattered more than the stats. Maccaabi moved to eight places in the table with two points from two games — a loss, then this win. Hapoel sat eleventh with zero points from two defeats. Cup football has its own rhythm, but this was league football, and the hosts had started properly.