APOEL’s European campaign came to an unexpected early end as they suffered a 3-1 defeat against Azerbaijani side Neftchi in the second leg of the UEFA Europa League play-off round Thursday evening at Nicosia’s GSP Stadium.
The seven-time Azerbaijani champions booked a spot in the group stage draw for the European second-tier competition with a 4-2 aggregate victory, after playing a 1-1 stalemate last Thursday in Baku.
After only 13 minutes into the game in the Cypriot capital, the visitors had a great chance to open the proceedings. Mario Sergio brought down Flavinho just outside the penalty area and Julius Wobay hit the woodwork from the free kick with a powerful strike.
Neftchi then continued to dominate and nine minutes later took the lead, when Cavid Imamverdiyev was sent through down the right flank and Dionisios Chiotis rushed out of his goal trying to stop the Azerbaijani forward – only to deflect the ball into the path of incoming Rashad Sadygov who slotted it home.
Eight minutes later it was already 2-0 for Neftchi. Wobay took a long distance shot from the right wing some 25 metres away from the goal, and luckily for the Sierra Leone international, the ball deflected off Nektarios Alexandrou and flew across the goal past hapless Chiotis.
Needing three goals to advance at this stage, APOEL received a lifeline in the last minute of the first half when Selim Benachour hit the net from close range. Efstathios Aloneftis connected with Gustavo Manduca’s cross, but Sasa Stamenkovic managed to save his shot only for the experienced Frenchman to score his second goal against Neftchi in as many games.
After the interval, Ivan Jovanovic’s men were firmly determined to go all out offensively, but it was not meant to be, as the visitors utilised a counter attack 15 minutes into the second half, with Brazilian forward Flavinho making it 3-1, which eventually proved to be the final score.
APOEL’s premature Europa League exit means that only one Cypriot team, AEL, will be drawn Friday afternoon in Nyon for the group stage of the Europa League.
Cyprus mail
