Persik Kediri’s red-hot form continues as they coolly dispatched Persita Tangerang 3-1 at the Brawijaya Stadium in Friday night’s Liga 1 Indonesia action. The win was Persik’s seventh in a row, firmly establishing the Macan Putih as one of the form teams of the season in recent days.
Once again clad in their white-and-purple third jerseys, Persik went gung-ho from the start and found themselves winning a penalty in the 15th minute after Krisna Bayu Otto was fouled in the box. However, Persita’s veteran goalkeeper Aditya Harlan managed to guess the direction of Renan Silva’s penalty and deny Persik the lead.
Despite this setback, ten minutes later Persik finally found their breakthrough, after Yohannes Pahabol managed to stab home a powerful shot past Harlan.
Flavio Silva squandered a rebounded shot that could’ve doubled Persik’s lead in the 31st minute, before Persita showed some signs of life at the end of the first half when Bae Sin-yeong rattled the crossbar with his effort.
There was no denying Silva in the second half as the Portuguese danger man made it 2-0 Persik in the 46th minute, firing home a screamer that completely left Harlan utterly beaten. Silva then doubled his tally and scored Persik’s third goal of the night in the 54th minute with a simple finish from Renan’s pass.
Miftahul Hamdi thought that he made it 4-0 Persik shortly after Silva’s second goal, however it was chalked off for offside.
Persita were then awarded a penalty of their own in the 60th minute after Vava Mario Yagalo had fouled Fahreza Sudin within the area. Ramiro Fergonzi managed to dispatched the ensuing spot-kick excellently, beating Kurniawan Kartika Ajie to reduce the deficit for Persita.
However, Persik managed to hang onto their lead to earn all three points – cementing themselves further in the league’s mid-table with their seventh win in a row.
Friday night’s other matches saw Persib Bandung keeping their faint title hopes alive with a 2-1 home win over Bhayangkara FC and Arema FC playing out a 0-0 draw with Borneo FC Samarinda at the PTIK Stadium.