United City FC extended its lead in the Copa Paulino Alcantara with a comfortable 4-0 win over the Azkals Development Team on Thursday, March 31, 2022 at the PFF National Training Centre in Carmona, Cavite.
Ricki Sendra and Ivan Ouano once again found the mark while fellow newcomers Amirbek Juraboev and Kenshiro Daniels each scored their first goal for the club which claimed the maximum three points.
The 2020 Philippines Football League champions got back to their winning ways after battling Copa titleholder Kaya-Iloilo to a 1-1 draw three days earlier.
UCFC improved to seven points, three clear of Kaya for top spot in the seven-team table.
It was United City’s third match in a span of seven days as part of a compact schedule before heading to Pathum Thani, Thailand for the group stage of the AFC Champions League
United City still has one more domestic match before the continental campaign when it takes on Mendiola FC 1991 on April 4.
ADT absorbed defeat after starting the campaign with a 3-0 defeat of Mendiola last Monday. The developmental squad will take an 11-day break before facing Stallion-Laguna on April 11.
Sendra put United City on top 12 minutes after kickoff as the Argentine lofted a shot off a corner kick by Daniels that hit the back of the net for his second goal of the competition.
The Tajikistan-born Juraboev doubled the lead in the 21st, when he received a pass from JJ Robertson before finding some space in the middle to fire a screamer past ADT keeper Kyle Bayabos.
United City won a free kick in the 72nd, with Mark Hartmann, back after a stint with the Philippine Azkals in the Tri-Nations Series in Singapore, firing from long range that was batted away by Bayabos, but Ouano was quick to score a tap-in against his former club to tie Sendra and Kaya’s Japanese winger Daizo Horikoshi atop the goalscoring tally.
Daniels casually added the fourth and final goal with a minute left before stoppage time in just his second match with UCFC.