Week 17 brings us a match on Jan 7th where Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Netanya will play a match in Netanya 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 16 degrees, which should make for a nice day for football. In their last match, Maccabi Netanya recorded a 1-1 draw against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Alen Ožbolt struck first for Hapoel Tel Aviv in the 41st minute, then Omri Gandelman tied it up for Maccabi Netanya in the 56th minute earning them at least the one point. Maccabi Netanya is looking for direction having 3 win and 5 losses in their last 10 matches, while in their last match, 9th placed Bnei Sakhnin, recorded a 1-2 loss against Hapoel Haifa. Serdal scored the first goal for Hapoel Haifa in the 36th minute, then Guy Melamed tied it up for Bnei Sakhnin in the 68th minute on a feed from Taleb Tawatha. Bnei Sakhnin looks to improve on their recent performance, having earned only 6 points in their last 10 matches.
Maccabi Netanya and Bnei Sakhnin last played eachother at the Doha Stadium on Sat Sep 10th. Bnei Sakhnin and Maccabi Netanya battled to a 0-0 draw. Neither Bnei Sakhnin nor Maccabi Netanya could manage to put one past the goalie. They had 11 and 9 shots on net respectively, but no one could score, and the match ended in a scoreless draw,.
Bnei Sakhnin is fortunate enough to have Guy Melamed in top form. In the last five matches the attacker has scored 4 goals. Igor Zlatanović has been on a hot streak lately. In the last five games, hes scored four goals for Maccabi Netanya.