JAKARTA - Madura United defeated Persib Bandung at home and won 3-1 over the hosts in the 2022-23 Indonesian League 1 continued at the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api Stadium, Bandung City, West Java, Saturday.
Even though they had fallen behind from the hosts due to David da Silva's goal, Madura United managed to turn things around through Luiz 'Lulinha' Marcelo, Pedro Henrique, and the execution of Hugo Gomes' penalty.
The result brought Madura United back to the top of the standings, which was previously occupied by PSM Makassar. Together they collected six points, Madura United had a goal difference superiority of 10 surplus compared to PSM which only had a surplus of three.
Meanwhile, Persib, which this season has yet to record a victory, must be willing to drop to 12th place down with a record of one point and a goal difference of two deficits.
Appearing in front of their own supporters, Maung Bandung's troops played quite confidently at the beginning of the match and managed to open the scoring with Da Silva's first touch kick to welcome Frets Butuan's cross in the 16th minute.
The goal added to the confidence of Persib, who tried to continue to dominate the game, but entering the last 15 minutes of the first half the host's rhythm began to falter and Madura United created chaos in front of their opponent's goal, unfortunately they were unable to produce a reply.
A minute before halftime Hugo Gomes fired a long-range shot which was easily secured by Persib goalkeeper Fitrul Dwi to maintain the hosts' 1-0 advantage over Madura United when the first half ended.
Persib entered the second half by fielding Dedi Kusnandar to replace Ezra Walian, but it was Madura United who took over control of the game.
The visitors' efforts to score a return goal finally paid off in the 59th minute when Lulinha grabbed the ball from Malik Risaldi's shot which Fitrul failed to anticipate.
The draw score further spurred the spirit and confidence of the Madura United players who then successfully turned to take advantage through Pedro Henrique's goal in the 68th minute.
Starting from a counter-attack situation, Esteban Vizcra dribbled into the Persib defense area before passing it to Henrique who successfully passed Rachmat Irianto's obstacles before tricking Fitrul.
The goal was greeted by Robert Rene Alberts by making double substitutions to include Kakang Rudianto and Zalnando replacing Erwin Ramdani and Bayu Fiqri.
Unfortunately, this step is not enough to change the situation. Madura United were even more confident and were awarded a penalty kick in the 77th minute when Lulinha was brought down by Fitrul inside the restricted area.
Hugo Gomes, who went on to become the executioner, had to take two penalty kicks, because the referee judged that he took too long to release the kick. Nevertheless, Gomes still managed to beat Fitrul in order to increase Madura United's advantage to 3-1 over Persib.
Persib's efforts to turn things around were a race against time with no change in the score, and Madura United took home the full three points when the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the game.
In the next match, Persib will travel to Borneo FC headquarters on Sunday (7/8) next week, while Madura United the previous day hosted Persik Kediri.
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