Historical victory for APOEL in UEFA Champions League

APOEL FC recovered from a goal down to beat the Russian outfit Zenit St. Petersburg 2-1 on the opening match day of the UEFA Champions League Group G last night at the sold out GSP Stadium in Nicosia.

Zenit striker Danny had the first opportunity of the game on a humid night in the Cypriot capital, but he was well stopped by Savvas Poursaitides. Despite the slow start it was the home team that knocked the ball around with greater confidence in the early stages with Ivan Trickovski inspiring APOEL’s attack. 

The domination continued throughout the first half of an hour as the hosts enjoyed 58 per cent possession. Unfortunately for the home fans there were no goals in the first half as their team failed to convert on a couple of occasions.

After the interval the visitors started to pressure APOEL’s defence and Konstantin Zyryanov opened the proceeding in 63rd minute as Danny skipped a perfectly-weighted through ball to the experienced striker who tucked the ball away with a confident first-time finish from 12 meters, despite having only scored one domestic goal this season.

However, the Cypriot defending champions never gave up and ten minutes later Argentinean midfielder Gustavo Manduca calmly sent the ball home after a miskick from Helio Pinto turned into a perfect assist.

Manduca was instrumental for the home team two minutes later when he assisted Ailton, who has now scored 12 goals in the UEFA Champions League, to provide APOEL with a 2-1 lead after attacking from the left wing and confidently kicked the ball inside the far post.

Bruno Alves then received a second yellow card and was sent off in the next minute of the game as he caught Ailton with a late challenge to pile further misery on Zenit who looked shell-shocked after a devastating few minutes at the GSP Stadium, while the home fans went delirious.

The Russian team then introduced Serbian forward Danko Lazovic and started to play risky to save at least a point from this game but APOEL’s experienced back line weathered the storm and the Cypriot outfit deservedly recorded the best result in their modern history.

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.