The 2018 Copa Paulino Alcantara was the first edition of the

Copa Paulino Alcantara The Copa Paulino Alcantara, also known as the PFL Cup, is an annual football tournament in Philippines, sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation. The cup's first iteration began on September 1, 2018. It replaced the PFF National Men's Club ...

, the domestic football cup competition of the Philippines. The competition started on September 1, 2018 and concluded on October 27, 2018, with Kaya–Iloilo winning the inaugural tournament after defeating

Davao Aguilas The Davao Aguilas Football Club (abbreviated as DAFC) is a Filipino professional football club based in the city of Tagum, Davao del Norte. From 2017 to 2018, the club has played in the Philippines Football League (PFL), the highest level of fo ...

1–0 in

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. The winners qualified for the

2019 AFC Cup The 2019 AFC Cup was the 16th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club association football, football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Al Ahed FC, Al-Ahed won the title for the first time, defeating 4.25 SC, ...

Participating clubs

All six clubs of the

2018 Philippines Football League The 2018 Philippines Football League was the second season of the Philippines Football League (PFL), the professional football league of the Philippines. The season started on 3 March and concluded on 25 August. The league was contested by six tea ...

are eligible to participate in the tournament. On July 15, 2018 during the PFL Fans Day, it was announced that non-franchise clubs will also be allowed to join the cup competition provided that they will satisfy minimum licensing requirements which will be set for the competition. But only clubs in the PFL joined the tournament.

Format

Competition

The Copa Paulino Alcantara commenced on September 1, 2018 with a group phase of two groups with three teams each. A round robin format with home and away legs was used for this phase. The top two teams advance to the semifinals with the group winners facing the runner-up team from the other group. The higher seeded teams hosted the one-off semifinals. The final consisted of a single match as well.

Draw

A draw to determine the composition of the groupings for the group phase was held on August 26, 2018.

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Knock-out stage

Bracket

Semi-finals

Final

Top scorers

Notes

: a Match was moved from the

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to anticipated bad weather due to Typhoon Mangkhut (Ompong). : b

by topping their group were given the right to play their semifinal match at home but due to the unavailability of their home stadium at the

Davao del Norte Sports Complex The Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex (DNSTC) is a sports complex in Tagum, Davao del Norte, Philippines, and is the largest sports complex in the Davao region. It was built on the area of the former Davao Sports Complex, torn down by fir ...

Tagum Tagum, officially the City of Tagum ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Tagum; fil, Lungsod ng Tagum), is a 1st class component city and capital of the Davao del Norte, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 296,202 people making it th ...

, the club opted to play their semifinal match at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila.

References

{{2018 in Asian football (AFC)

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2018 PFL Cup 2018 domestic association football cups