Detained By Persita, Persebaya's Asa To The Champions Ladder Is Getting Thinner

Illustration (doc. between)

GIANYAR - The 2021 Liga 1 continued match which brought together Persebaya Surabaya and Persita Tangerang ended in a draw. Bajul Ijo's determination to wrap up the perfect points in order to keep his hopes up to the championship ladder finally foundered by the fierce resistance of the Cisadane Warriors through his quite deadly counterattacks.

In fact, the team made by Coach Widodo Cahyono Putro had taken the lead through Ahmad Nur Hardianto's kick in the 39th minute, taking advantage of the chaos that occurred in front of Persebaya's goal.

The former young striker for the Indonesian national team in the Luis Milla coaching era was calmly able to kick the ball into the left side of the empty goal, after previously goalkeeper Andika Ramadhani had died on the right side of the goal he was guarding.

However, despite falling behind, Persebaya was able to appear calm, and managed to score the equalizer through the mainstay midfielder from Japan, Taisei Marukawa, in the 45th minute. At the end of the first half, the two teams still shared the points 1-1.

In the second half, Persita did not want to continue to be under pressure from Persebaya. Through the trio of attackers, namely Hardianto, Miftahul Hamdi and Kasim Botan, Laskar Cisadane was quite successful in troubling Persebaya's back line.

As in the 55th minute, for example, foreign defender Persebaya, Ali Sesay, proved to be struggling to withstand a hard kick from Kasim. Even in the 61st minute Hardianto again successfully vibrated the Persebaya net. Luckily, the referee disallowed the goal because the striker was deemed to have been in an offside position.

Meanwhile, in the Marcelino et al camp, the coach, Aji Santoso, in the 63rd minute tried to inject new energy by pulling out his aging striker, Samsul Arif, and was replaced by a young winger, Supriadi.

The results are quite satisfactory. Persebaya's attack grew alive by relying on the speed of Marcelino Ferdinand, SUpriadi, Taisei Marukawa and also Bruno Moreira. However, Persita goalkeeper, Rendi Oscario, looked stunning tonight by making several crucial saves.

Until the second half ended, both teams had to settle for a 1-1 final score. This result forced Persebaya stuck in fourth place with 55 points from 29 matches. The number of points is the same as the acquisition of Bhayangkara FC, which is ranked fifth, but still has one game left.

Meanwhile, Persita also did not move from 10th position in the 2021 Liga 1 standings. However, being able to be in the middle board was basically not a bad result for Persita, who had started the competition with unsatisfactory results.