Kuala Lumpur City’s 7 match unbeaten run in all competitions since early August 2022 came crashing to an end at Penang on Saturday after Lucas Silva’s 79th minute header at the City Stadium, condemned the Red and White’s to their seventh defeat in the Super League this season, almost certainly wiping out any outside hopes for headcoach Bojan’s men, to finish fourth in the standings.
The rearranged fixture with the Panthers was brought forward due to the upcoming date with PFC Sogdiana in the AFC Cup 2022 Inter-Zone final (East Asia Region) in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan on October 5, 2022, and saw the City Boys’ resume to life on the road after an eight day respite from their whirlwind tour of Sabah, India, Pahang and Melaka before that, covering 17,000km’s in 15 days, but based on what transpired in Georgetown, it seemed that the entire squad was still feeling the after effects of their journeys.
This frustrating loss against the league’s bottom side, who only recorded their second win of the season, comes on the back of that disappointing draw in Melaka, marking 5 dropped points which could have been useful in the assault of fourth place Terengganu. More worrying for the city slickers though, was their inability to find the back of the net in the past 180 minutes when going against defences that have conceded 69 goals over 37 matches at an average of 1.86 goals per game.
Gallifuoco though, was not reading too much into all this, merely terming this defeat to the islanders as a temporary blip in their excellent form of late, which produced 4 outright victories against Negeri Sembilan, PSM Makassar, ATK Mohun Bagan and Sri Pahang, with 3 draws with Viettel, Sabah & Melaka United in the 7 matches after losing to Johor DT at the start of August.
“This loss was a tiny moment off the back of a seven-game undefeated run. After a crazy month and a half of travelling domestically and internationally, unfortunately sometimes, it takes its toll”, he said when speaking to The Voice of The City Boys.
Allaying concerns of the #sampaimatikualalumpur faithful on the team being unable to eek out results from matches where the opponent is keen to sit back and allow the City Boys to dominate possession, the Australian asked for the situation to be viewed in the right perspective.
“That’s our first loss in 7 games. I think it’s a mixture of a lot of travel and much football. The team is disappointed and is working hard to set things right at home against Sarawak (on September 28, 2022. I think the answer is to go back to what we do best.”
To read the match report of Penang vs KL City on 24/9/2022 (Super League), please click COMING SOON
To watch the highlights of Penang vs KL City on 25/9/2022 (Super League), please click https://youtu.be/griPMsCSpF0
To watch the complete match of Penang vs KL City on 25/9/2022 (Super League), please click https://youtu.be/ebZJOGFP2Lc