alovera 3 - 0 PCFC (387128925)

Clear skies welcomed the 27204 spectators who had made their way to BeeHive Stadium. Ralph Bladin was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Epi Wiewel and Milan Marada. The derby had been the talk of Manila all week and fans of both teams could be seen throughout the stadium. alovera decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. They fielded: Syväoja - Luik, Kalske, Marecek, Berg - Di Domenico, Pandit, Famini, Gavezzoli, Posion - Jeppsson.

A 4-4-2 alignment was the formation of choice for PCFC. Lineup: Vidal - Dubois, Choa, Flammo, Opara - Veloso, Granada, Ariño, Silla - Schumann, Kırca.

alovera clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. PCFC were relying on their ability to counter-attack. After 20 minutes, G. Di Domenico came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 1 - 0, giving alovera the lead. G. Luik struck a 30 metre free kick home 31 minutes into the match. 2 - 0 for the home team. A. Silla almost seemed to dance around T. Gavezzoli, his movements were so smooth. Unfortunately for PCFC, his finish ended up on the wrong side of the post. With their counter attack move halted 40 minutes into the game, PCFC were left with a free kick. The ball is passed straight through to the other end of the penalty area, with hopes for it to reach G. Granada. However, he didn't have his wits about him and the ball went out. The teams went for the halftime break at 2 - 0. alovera enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 61 percent of possession.

Cheers filled the stadium as A. Berg broke through the visitors' central defence to put away the ball to increase the lead to 3 - 0 to alovera. By now, the players in alovera felt that victory was guaranteed and began to play it safe, focusing on defence and not risking too much going forward. The coach of alovera was happy with the game so far, but still wanted to change the line up. After 75 minutes, P. Intal came on for T. Gavezzoli. After 78 minutes, PCFC's N. Schumann fell awkwardly, but was determined to stay in the match. That's the spirit! The alovera players could smell victory in the air. J. Posion wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for J. Chamard after 80 minutes. alovera claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 54 percent.

Most important alovera player was D. Famini. P. Syväoja on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating PCFC player was without a doubt R. Veloso. G. Granada was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 0.