Void in the middle: Brendan Gan will be sorely missed in midfield as KL take on Singapore side Lion City Sailors in the Asean Club Championship today. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: Injuries to key players will weaken Kuala Lumpur’s hopes of securing a third consecutive win in the Asean Club Championship when they take on Singapore side Lion City Sailors today.
Experienced midfielder Brendan Gan and Bosnian winger Jovan Motika will miss the Group B clash due to injury and family commitments.
KL head coach Miroslav Kuljanac admitted his side faced an uphill battle due to injuries and revealed that he has had to devise a different strategy, with several reserve players likely to feature in their third Group B match against the Singapore powerhouse.
Despite this, the KL players had been training hard and even trained for a week on an artificial turf to adapt to the surface at Jalan Besar Stadium.
“We came here (to Singapore) to win, and we will find a way to secure the points. Of course, we respect the home team,” said the Croatian coach.
“My main concern is the condition of some key players who are injured. Some are also not fully fit too.
“It’s not easy to play without them but we will make some adjustments and hope the team perform well and surprise them.
“The artificial turf at the stadium required us to train on a similar surface for the past seven days, so we will see tomorrow how well the team have adapted.”
KL have maintained an unbeaten record in their first two matches, having defeated Indonesia’s Borneo Samarinda and the Philippines side Kaya, both by 1-0 scorelines, to collect six points.
KL still can rely on a strong line-up, including Malaysian trio Paulo Josue, Haqimi Azim Rosli and Declan Lambert as well as veteran Philippines forward Patrick Reichelt, who returned unscathed from international duty at the AFF Cup recently.
KL skipper Josue said they were looking forward to resuming their Asean Club Championship campaign after the last outing in September.
“So far everything is good, even though we last played a long time ago in September. It was a full squad that time, the coach had more options and we managed to get six points,” said the Brazil-born Malaysian international.
“We have a great chance to qualify for the semi-finals, we have six points and we want to win this match.”
KL are second in their group with six points after two matches, same as leaders CAHN of Vietnam who lead Group B on goal difference. Lion City Sailors are bottom, pointless after two games.
