AEK Larnaca will make further history for Cyprus in Europe tomorrow night if they beat Steaua Bucharest in the Europa League, coupled with Schalke avoiding defeat in the other Group J game.
After an impressive, even if completely unexpected European campaign this season, AEK could close their historic Europa League group stage participation in the best possible manner, by emulating APOEL in qualifying for the knockout phase of a major European competition.
Despite sacking coach Ton Caanen four months into their most successful ever season, AEK have been buoyed by the arrival of new manager Leon Vlemmings and a good run of recent results.
The Larnaca side have won all their games since the departure of Caanen and shot up to fifth in the Cypriot First Division table, just six points behind leaders APOEL.
In Europe, AEK earned renewed hope of qualification after their 2-1 win over Maccabi Haifa two weeks ago, leaving them needing a win in Romania and Maccabi failing to beat Schalke, who are already guaranteed top spot in the group.
“We are ready for this game and we have shown that we are in very good form. We will go to Romania to play our own game, to keep the ball and we will try to get a good result. Our target is obviously the win, unfortunately though we know that qualification does not depend on us alone,” Spanish forward Gorka Pintado said ahead of the game.
A reason for the improvement in AEK’s fortunes of late has been the return from injury of captain Kevin Hofland. The former Dutch international central defender spent two months on the sidelines but his return to the first team has resulted in AEK conceding just one goal from five matches, a run that underlines his importance at the back.
Also, in the last few games, the Spanish duo of Gorka Pintado and Gonzalo Garcia, who is second in the domestic scoring charts with six goals from midfield to accompany his five in the Europa League so far this season, have enjoyed a return to form demonstrated by their role in the victory against Maccabi last time out.
Garcia in particular has shown the glimpses of the form that saw him line up alongside Andres Iniesta and Fernando Torres in the Spanish under 17s and has scored in each of his last four appearances.
Kyriakos Pavlou and Albert Serrán are injury doubts ahead of the game for AEK, while striker Miljan Mrdaković who missed the weekend win over Annagenisi Derynias may recover in time.
