Chelsea braced for APOEL Clash

CHELSEA have arrived in Nicosia ahead of tomorrow’s UEFA Champions League Group game against APOEL. The team is staying in the Hilton International in Nicosia, and will be warming up for the match at APOEL’s home ground, GSP, this evening.

APOEL will come into the game with one point, buoyed after a tense nil-nil tie against Atletico Madrid last week. Chelsea currently lead the group with a three points from their first match against Porto, but no doubt rattled by an unexpected defeat to UK premier league underdogs, Wigan, on Saturday.

Chelsea’s Manager, Carlo Ancelotti, is expected to speak at a press conference at 7.30pm today. While the conference is likely to be in English, APOEL fans will no doubt be hoping Ancelotti switches to Italian during his trip – Known to only address his team in Italian when angry, he had reverted to his mother tongue by the second half of their disastrous 3-1 defeat at the weekend. 

Ancelotti said “We did not play well and I don’t know why,” he said. “Wigan were very good, very well-organised. I was surprised.”

Over 1000 Chelsea fans are also expected to fly into Cyprus for the match. Panikos Hadjiliassis, spokesman for APOEL Football club, said yesterday “1,150 tickets were allocated to Chelsea, and all have been sold.” Tickets reportedly sold out ten days ago for tomorrow’s game, which kicks off at 9.45pm. “All of tickets for all three matches sold out by last Friday, and nearly all were in packages.” No ticket will be available on the door.

All of the junior tickets sold out too, requiring some parents to buy adult tickets for their children. This is likely to be the second time that APOEL’s home stadium GSP, was filled to capacity. The last was in August, when over 22,000 fans packed out the stands to a watch a thrilling 3-1 victory over Copenhagen.

Hadjiliassis added that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will not be attending the match.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.