Maccabi Petah Tikva hosted Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem in the fifth round of the Ligat ha-Al on Saturday evening, and the visitors came away with a 4:2 victory despite being outplayed for large stretches. The match, played on 2026-09-19, ended with the away side capitalising on their chances while the hosts squandered theirs.
N. Vrasana opened the scoring in the sixth minute and then doubled his tally before half-time, sending the visitors into the break with a 2:1 lead. Andrew Idoko added a third for Jerusalem in the sixteenth minute, and then José Cortés made it 3:1 just before the interval. By then, Petah Tikva had already begun to look frustrated, and the substitutions at the break only deepened the confusion.
The second half brought a brief stir of hope. Liran Hazan pulled one back for the hosts in the fifty-fourth minute, and Vrasana, seemingly unbothered, completed his hat-trick in the fifty-fifth. Three minutes later he was substituted himself, having taken the game by the throat and refused to let go.
Petah Tikva controlled the ball with 68 per cent possession and completed 545 passes compared with 262 for Jerusalem, but the numbers tell only half the story. The hosts registered 18 shots on target across all attempts — 9 on target compared with 6 off — while their visitors managed 8 shots on target from 14 attempts. Expected goals sat at 2.24 for Petah Tikva and 2.07 for Jerusalem, a narrow margin that nevertheless translated into a two-goal difference on the board.
The result leaves Petah Tikva in eighth place with six points from five games, while Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem move to sixth with seven points. The hosts have now lost three of five and face a run of fixtures that will test their resolve. Jerusalem, meanwhile, have won twice and drawn once, and this away victory might be the one that shifts their momentum.
