Cyprus Football Round Up

Ermis Aradippou celebrated an unlikely 2-0 victory over defending champions APOEL to spoil Giorgos Donis’ debut as coach of the Nicosia giants in Round 6 of the national football championship at the Ammochostos Stadium in Larnaca.

“It is a bad result for us. For the past week since I arrived I am trying to learn as much as possible about my players. I watched a lot of their games and I was anxious to see them in an official match,” said a disappointed Donis after the game
“In the first half we gave our opponents many chances and we were lucky that they did not convert any of them.
“We improved in the second half, but if we look at the entire picture Ermis were better overall and they won fair and square.
“We need to identify our weaknesses and work hard to minimise them, while we also need to correct our present mindset,” Donis concluded.
Ermis coach Nicos Panayiotou meanwhile was clearly delighted. “First of all I would like to congratulate my players who have been training hard for four months and it was obvious that work pays off,” he said.
“I believe that many had doubts about us, but these guys showed what they know on the pitch. I am really proud of all of them, and not only the ones who played against APOEL,” he added.
After losing to Apollon in the opening round, Ermis have now won five straight games. and are third spot equal on points with leaders Anorthosis and second placed Apollon.
Jose Henrique was the hero on Saturday with two late goals. The Portuguese forward broke the deadlock in the 84th minute and then set up the final score deep into injury time from the penalty spot to increase his season tally to five.
“We knew that APOEL are going through difficult times and we wanted to exploit their transition period as this was the first game in charge for their new coach. My players gave everything they had on the pitch and I believe that we deservedly won,” Panayiotou concluded.
Elsewhere, Roberto Colautti netted his eighth goal of the season to help league leaders Anorthosis overcome Ethnikos Achnas 2-1, while Apollon trounced AEK Kouklion 4-0 at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol.
AEL Limassol suffered an unexpected 2-0 loss to Nea Salamina in Larnaca with both goals coming inside the first fifteen minutes of the game, while Doxa Katokopia continue with quality performances as they thrashed bottom side Aris 4-0 away from home.

Omonia won a covteted three points after beating Athlikiti Enosi Kition (AEK) 1-0 at Nicosia’s GSP Stadium last night with a goal by Andre Schembri in the 61st minute.

The action-packed first half had nonetheless ended without a recognised goal as an effort by Schembri in the 37th minute was disallowed.