Football

KL City claims sixth win despite turmoil of points deduction

KUALA LUMPUR: KL City head coach, Miroslav Kuljanac has a lot of problems, but he rather rolls with the punches.

On Friday, the City Boys recorded their sixth win in 12 matches with a 3-1 home win over Kelantan Darul Naim (KDN) at KLFA Stadium.

The win was quite remarkable as KL City came back from 1-0 down to slam three goals past KDN.

A stoic Kuljanac said he just wants trouble-ridden KL City to move on.

His team were docked six points by the Malaysian Football League, fined RM50,000 and banned from doing player transfers (for 2024-2025) for submitting inaccurate declarations in their application for this season's national and Asian Football Confederation licences.

"I honestly forgot about those (deducted) six points," said Croatian Kuljanac.

"We can't change the past. We need to focus on earning new points.

"If we were counting those (forfeited), we'd be sitting at 20 points right now (and in third place behind Johor Darul Ta'zim and Selangor).

"But that's not how it stands, and that's okay. We're not under pressure, we just need to keep winning."

Kuljanac feels that his men, who are owed salaries, have been revitalised after the new KLFA leadership paid them one month of wages, and promised to settle the rest.

"I reminded the players that our job is to perform whenever we're on the field, and they did just that.

"The management is aware of our issues, and we're hopeful they will address them," said Kuljanac.

Kuljanac praised centreback Nicholas Swirad for his performance against KDN as he scored his first goal in nearly three years.

"It was a beautiful goal and a testament to our character and quality. To be honest, it surprised me. Maybe I would have reacted differently if I'd known what to expect, but he executed it well," said Kuljanac.

On Friday, KDN took the lead with a goal from Washington Brando in the 57th minute.

However, KL City responded with Swirad equalising in the 64th and captain Paulo Josue scoring a brace, in the 80th and in injury time.

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