Maronites shock cup win over Tripimeni
Apart from the Aradippou v Brotherhood game it was all First Division versus Second Division teams playing in the cup games and judging by the results there was not much difference in standard in their games.
Challenge Cup
First Round
Tripimeni 2 Maronites 6: Second Division Maronites who are currently third in their division shocked Tripimeni who are riding high in second place in the first division in this Challenge Cup first round game.
Maronites really raised the game for this cup game they have already really impressed this season with their fighting spirit. Maronites started very well and missed a sitter after five minutes. Tripimeni made them pay after five minutes when they took the lead after fifthteen minutes with a headed goal from Alex Roussis but within minutes Maronites equalised with a thirty yard strike from Luke Demetriades it was now all end to end football with Maronites taking the lead just before the break with a cracking goal from Adem Ali.
Second half Maronites came out with even more passion and after a combined team effort Adem Ali finished the move with a great goal making it 3-1. Maronites still pressed and hassled deserving their fourth goal scored by Matthew Demetriades. A shock result with only sixty five minutes gone. You would have then thought Tripimeni would take Maronites seriously and go for goal but Maronites continued to play excellent football and again scored with a twenty yard volley from Elia Koutsoudi making it 5-1. Tripimeni had many chances however they came up against man of the match Mario Hitra who made a series of excellent saves. With twenty minutes to go Maronites got lucky on the sixth goal with a free kick taken by Adem Ali took a deflection to go straight into the back of the net. Tripimeni were able to get their second goal with twenty minutes left in the game scored by Alfie Bartram. The goalkeeping heroics of Mario Hitra kept Tripimeni out.
KLN 0 New Salamis 6: It wasn’t to be David versus Goliath, the First Division League leaders New Salamis versus bottom of the second division table KLN. KLN raised their game and gave it all but it wasn’t to be their day New Salamis led 2-0 at half time with goals from Steve Valendia . In the second half the reds increased their lead to 6-0 with their goals coming from Michael Dean, Mario Georgiou, Justin Zacharia and another from Steve Valendia making it a hat trick for him.
Challenge Cup
Second Round
Omonia 3 Pantel 2: Father and son Tony and Chris Philippou save Omonia’s day Omonia had a tough game with second division Pantel who were leading two nil within the half hour with an own goal and the other penalty well taken by Pantel’s super striker Israel. Omonia scored in the 35th minute with a goal from Chris Philippou. Omonia went into the break 2-1 down and were struggling to get back into the game and decided to do what Arsenal nad Man Utd have beenj doing recently with Henry and Scholes and bring back veteran Tony Philippou who came on as a sub and rejuvenate the Greens who equalised in the 70th minute with a goal from Chris Philippou and in the dying minutes with a cracking long range shot from Tony Philippou who saved the day to give Omonia 3-2 win to advance to the third round.
Aradippou 3 Brotherhood 3 (4-4 in extra time) and Aradippou won on penalties: This has got to be the match of the day, it had it all for a cup game ,lots of goals, extra time and penalties. Aradippou took the lead 1-0 with a goal from Oliver. Brotherhood then equalised and took the lead with both goals coming from Aaron Kennedy. Brotherhood had a penalty saved by the Aradippou keeper Kyriacos Tritanou, this seem to spur Aradippou to equalise with a goal from Fabio and then score a third with Ismet to take the lead at 3-2 but then Apostolos Yiannakas popped up to score a third and equalise to take the game into extra time. Into extra time the game went and Aradippou led 4-3 with a cracking goal from Danny Vearer. With minutes to go Aradippou thought they were going through Brotherhood grabbed an equaliser with Christos. Now we had to wait for penalties to decide the game and it was Aradippou who came through by winning 4-3 on penalties.
Rizokarpaaso 2 Komi Kebir 1: Much improved second division team Komi Kebir gave Rizokarpasso a fright. Spot kick specialist for Rizokarpasso Harry Vazanias got the game going after two minutes with a great goal from a well taken free kick. Komi gave their cup opponents a hard time and were able to equalise in the 55th minute with a goal from Andreas and it looked as if the game was going to go into extra time but Spencer Stylianou pops up in the last minute to score a vital winner for Rizokarpasso to advance into the next round.
Cetinkaya Cinar 2 Apoel 0: Again it was first versus second division. It was fourth from bottom in the first Division Cetinkaya versus Second from top in the second division Apoel. A very good game with a goal in each half for Cetinkaya Cinar both coming from Marcus Samuels. Cetinkaya are buzzing at the moment they have been putting in some good performances recently.
The games Pendayia v AEL and Olympia v Anorthosis were postponed due to frozen pitches
