Cyprus Championship race wide open

Apollon’s impressive win over leaders AEL, coupled with APOEL’s tough win over Omonia threw the race for the championship wide open with just two games remaining.
It’s all to play for at the wrong end of the table too as two points separate three teams, with one dropping into the second division.

AEL, with a six point lead at the top, were hoping to be crowned champions on Wednesday, but Apollonas had other ideas.
The only goal of the game came in the second minute from Abraham who converted Robert’s cross with aplomb. AEL’s chairman complained after the game that the referee must have been officiating at another ground but in fact it was the AEL players who failed to show up at the game.

Apollonas, tore apart the meanest defence in the league and should have won by a much bigger margin had it not been for some glaring misses. Their coach Christoforou, who has been performing wonders since he took over, promised that “this is just a taste of great things to come.”

In a game that will be quickly forgotten as a spectacle, APOEL managed to defeat their bitter rivals Omonia 2-1. The winning goal came from Aldo Adorno in the 76th minute, two minutes after he had come on as a substitute.

Greek coach Donis praised his players, especially for their second half performance while Omonia’s coach Kaiafas said that a draw would have been a more fair result. Both prior and after the post-game press conferences there were heated verbal exchanges between Donis and Omonia officials but cooler heads stepped in to avert an escalation.

It took Anorthosis coach Kostenoglou three months to lead his team to victory. Anorthosis were by far the better team and defeated Ermis 2-0 with Andic and Colautti getting on the scoreboard.

Ethnkos Achnas took a giant step towards first division status for next year when they beat Aris 3-0. Their coach Makrides was elated after the game but warned his players that there was still a lot of work to be done.

This was Aris’ first defeat in the playoffs and it drops them into the relegation zone.
As expected Doxa had few problems in defeating relegated AEK Kouklion with the team from Kouklia fielding only local talents. Ramos and Leandro scored a brace each with Doxa controlling play from start to finish.

In the last (indifferent) game AEK Larnaca thumped three past Nea Salamina who despite the loss remain top of Group B.

Cyprus Weekly

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