Aceh And East Kalimantan Qualify For The Top 6 Of The Men's Football PON Papua

The Aceh Men's Football Team poses for a group photo before starting the match against the North Sulawesi men's soccer team (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Aceh men's soccer team confirmed themselves to advance to the last 6 rounds of the Papua PON after beating East Kalimantan with a score of 3-2 at the Barnabas Youwe Stadium, Sentani, Jayapura Regency, Monday.

Even though they lost, East Kalimantan also has the right to qualify for the big 6 round with the runner-up status in Group C thanks to the superior productivity of goals from North Sulawesi.

Aceh's goals were scored by midfielders Riza Rizki, Akhirul Wadhan and an own goal from East Kalimantan defender Muhammad Rizky Ramadhan. The East Kalimantan goals were scored by Agus Santoso and Muhammad Rifaldi.

The first round started with Aceh taking the initiative to attack because they needed a win to ensure that they qualified for the next phase.

The attack initiative from Aceh turned out to be a quick goal scored by midfielder Riza Rizki in the 6th minute which made the score 1-0 for Aceh.

East Kalimantan managed to equalize when midfielder Muhammad Rifaldi in the 25th minute managed to score the ball into the Aceh goal after receiving a pass from the left-wing.

East Kalimantan managed to turn things around through striker Agus Santoso who took a shot at the Aceh goal guarded by Kautsar Ramadhan, making the score 2-1 in the 33rd minute.

Aceh continued to make efforts to equalize by launching attacks but until the first half was over, the score 2-1 for East Kalimantan remained.

In the second half, Aceh secured the initiative to attack first and their striker Akhirul Wadhan managed to release a hard kick but still bounced over the East Kalimantan bar.

Aceh's efforts finally paid off after striker Akhirul Wadhan at minute 50 after taking advantage of the chaos that occurred in front of the East Kalimantan goal and changed the score to 2-2.

On the other hand, East Kalimantan had to replace their goalkeeper, Andry Fathur Robby due to injury, which was replaced by Agus Susanto.

After that, Aceh took the lead again thanks to an own goal from East Kalimantan defender Muhammad Rizky Ramadhan who mistook a pass from Aceh striker, Perda Rahman, in the 70th minute.

Until the match was over, Aceh was able to maintain its superiority and made them entitled to qualify for the big 6 round of PON Papua with the status of group C winners.

On the other hand, East Kalimantan is also entitled to qualify for the Round of 6 with the runner-up status of Group C thanks to the productivity of goals scored better than North Sulawesi.

It is planned that the round 6 phase of the Papua PON Papua men's soccer branch will be held on October 6-10 at the Mandala Stadium, Jayapura City, and Barnabas Youwe Stadium, Sentani, Jayapura Regency.