Anorthosis earned a 3-1 victory over Levadia Tallinn in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League second qualifying round at the Kadriorg Stadium in the Estonian capital, while at the same stage of the competition APOEL beat FK Senica of Slovakia 2-0 at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia yesterday evening.
Ronny Levy’s men had the ball in possession and dictated the play throughout the first half, but failed to find the way through to Roman Smishko’s net until the very last minute of the half when Toni Calvo’s cross hit the hand of Aleksandr Kulinits and the German referee Marco Fitz pointed to the penalty spot. Juliano Spadacio made no mistake on his debut for the club as he calmly converted the penalty to open the proceedings.
Ten minutes after the interval Ricardo Laborde made it 2-0 when he beat his defender down the left flank and then confidently sent the ball through Smishko’s legs from the short corner. Calvo also scored on his debut for Anorthosis when he slotted home Vincent Laban’s great through ball seven minutes later.
When it looked like the Cypriot outfit would return home with a clean sheet, the hosts scored a consolation goal eight minutes from time as skipper Igor Morozov’s header, after Artjom Artjunin‘s cross, beat Srdjan Blazic to set up the final score.
APOEL struggled in the opening half hour against Slovakian side Senica, but after the influential Brazilian striker Ailton connected with Selim Benachour’s cross from the right flank to beat Senica’s Czech goalkeeper Milan Švenger with a low header in the 33rd minute, Ivan Jovanovic’s men started to play more creatively and, relieved of pressure, numerous goal scoring opportunities came their way.
Seven minutes later APOEL doubled their lead as Nektarios Alexandrou followed up Nuno Morais’ shot that was initially saved by Švenger and slotted it home from a close range. However, that proved to be the final result as the talented Švenger was on top of his game, stopping nine attempts on target to help his team await the return leg next Thursday in Slovakia with a slim hope of advancement.
Cyprus Mail
