First Division
Brotherhood 0 Olympia 3
Tripimeni 1 Aradippou Enosis London 3
Apoel 3 Cetinkaya Cinar 2
Rizokarpasso 0 Dynamo 2
Second Division
Pendayia 2 Achna 2
Asha 1 Pantel 1
Livadia 5 Komi Kebir4
Omonia 3 Cyprus Youth (KLN) 3
Anorthosis 1 Arachne 2
First Division
The first kick off of the day ended up being the biggest surprise of the day when Aradippou Enosis London (AEL) defeated Tripimeni 3-1. AEL had taken the lead from the 39th minute with a well taken free kick from George Michael. Just after the break AEL increased their lead with a goal from man of the match Danny Vearer when he lobbed the Tripimeni keeper from 15 yards.
Darren Gray got one back for Tripimeni in the 59th minute. The best goal was left to the end when Danny Vearer blasted his second and third AEL goal with a screamer from the edge of the box giving Aradippou (AEL) a great start to the season.
Newly promoted Olympia under new manager the Former New Salamis boss George Georgiou had a convincing 3-0 win over Brotherhood with two goals from Andreas Christou and Vince Rispoli all three goals came in the second half.
Another shock was newly promoted second division Champions Apoel beating Cetinkaya Cinar 3-2, Apoel were 2-0 up at half time with both goals coming from their new Albanian striker Perit Elbi.
Cetinkaya straight after the break scored with Jem Jemal . Cetinkaya continued pressing Apoel’s rearguard and Apoel caught Cinar off guard and managed to score a third with Richard Worrall.
Cetinkaya attacked ferociously and scored a goal in the later stages with a low shot from Yap.
Last year’s KOPA Challenge Cup winners Rizokarpasso got off to a bad start losing to Dynamo 2-0. The game was defensively tight at the start and the deadlock was not broken until the 80th minute wken Ali Bakoura scored for Dynamo who increased their lead to 2-0 with a goal from Christian Soteriou.
Second Division
Cyprus Youth (KLN) who struggled last season have come a long way under manager Paul Brian and they showed how much thay have improved when they drew 3-3 with relegated Omonia.KLN led throughout the game from 2-0, then 2-1, then 3-1 and then Omonia scored two late goals to level 3-3 final score.
KLN’s scorers were Chris Papacosta 2 and Mario Charalambides, the Omonia scorers were Dakos 2 and Keith.
New team Livadia had a ding dong battle with beating Komi Kebir 5-4 with a score like that Livadia has got to realise that they play in a football League and not at Wimbledon tennis.
Adem Ali scored the first goal of the match for Livadia.after ten minutes, Jason Lambri then scored the equaliser for Komi . Anastasis Panayiotou then increased the lead to 2-1 to Livadia with a fine volley.Just before the break Komi equalised with a goal from Jason Lambri .
Second half Elia Katsoulides made it 3-2 Livadia with a well taken 25 yard strike and then increased their lead further to 4-2 with a second goal from Adem Ali. Komi Kebir then pulled one back with a goal from Oliver Beccles. Seventeen year old Andreas Kyprianou making his KOPA League following in the footsteps of his Dad Kypros Kyprianou scored in the 88th minute to increase Livadia’s lead to 5-3. Komi still came back fighting and scored a last minute goal from the penalty spot well taken by Nick Seyho.
Another suprise was Arachne beating Anorthosis who have signed several players recently 2-1. Anorthosis actually took the lead in the 23rd minute with a goal from Danny Coolridge. Arachne equalised just before the break with a penalty taken and scored by Damien Spyrou. In the second half Anthony Panayi scored the winner for Arachne with a shot from the edge of rhe penalty box
New team Asha shook Pantel with a 1- 1 draw, both goals coming in the first half. Pantel led 1-0 with a goal from Anthony and Francesco Michael equalised for Asha.
Pendayia and Achna kicked off their seasons with a hard fought draw that saw the home team missing an open goal and hit the post twice.
Achna took the lead early when a mistake on the bi-line allowed an Achna attacker to easily play the ball across the box and Theo Skouris slotted the ball back across goal and into the net. Pendayia pushed hard for the equaliser and had several chances to make it 1-1, but it took a low, hard shot from the edge of the box from Stephanos Tsirpis to bring the game level. Just before the half time whistle, a free kick just inside the Pendayia half wasn’t dealt with properly from the Pendayia defence and Achna took the lead again when a fumbled shot was deflected in off Andrew Stylianou.
The second half began quickly with Pendayia pushing for a second equaliser of the game and was rewarded when forward George Paraskeva used his strength to roll off the last defender and fire the ball into the back of the net to finish the game at 2-2.
