ON July 12, as APOEL kicked off their Champions League campaign in Albania to lowly Skenderbeu, had you suggested what was to come next, your mental sanity would surely have been questioned.
Had anyone told APOEL fans or players that they would be boarding a flight back from Madrid having just played Real in the last eight of the Champions League they would have laughed. Laughed long and hard, asked for a repeat of what they had just heard and kept on laughing.
Yet 267 days and 16 matches later, the curtain finally fell on their epic Champions League adventure at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night against nine-time European champions Real Madrid.
Skenderbeu were swept aside early on and the Cyprus champions made light work of Slovan Bratislava in the following qualifier.
A comeback was needed against a tough Wisla Krakow side in the play-off before the champions of Russia, Portugal and Ukraine were all toppled in the group stage.
As APOEL scaled new heights for Cypriot football, Lyon came next and they were also sent packing thanks to the heroics of keeper Dionisis Chiotis in a thrilling penalty shoot out.
So Wednesday was a fitting end. Real Madrid were simply too much for Ivan Jovanovic and his men, a 5-2 defeat in Spain and an 8-2 loss on aggregate doing justice to the gap in quality between the two sides.
But they are Real Madrid after all. And as they’ve done in Europe this season, APOEL also left their mark at the Bearnabeu, scoring twice to give their 4,000 fans something to cheer about. Not that they needed an additional reason to.
“From the qualifying rounds and then into the group stage, we are left with so many memories form the tournament. It was fantastic playing against Real Madrid, they are one of the best teams in the world,” Nuno Morais told UEFA.com following the match.
“We don’t know if we were lucky or unlucky to draw Madrid but to finish our participation in the tournament against them was brilliant. Obviously it was difficult but I think we gave a good impression of ourselves.”
The tributes ran in the local press yesterday, as Phileleftheros went with the headline ‘A Proud Goodbye’ while Politis said: ‘Thank you legendary APOEL.’
The highest tribute of all however came from Real coach Jose Mourinho, who reportedly went into the away dressing room after the game and congratulated all APOEL players individually.
“Theirs is the biggest achievement in the Champions League this year. If Barcelona, Bayern or us go on to win, it won’t be as big an achievement as theirs has been,” Mourinho said.
While APOEL had managed to hold the attacking talent of Cristiano Ronaldo and Co at bay for nearly 75 minutes in Nicosia, it was a different affair in Madrid. The Portuguese goal machine opened the scoring on 25 minutes and the Spanish club doubled their lead before half time through Kaka’s brilliant long-range effort. However it was Manduca’s calm finish to cap off a fine APOEL move on 67 minutes that sparked a frantic finish, with Real scoring three more and APOEL adding to their tally with an Esteban Solari penalty.
“It was a pleasure to play here, in such a game. It is a crowning moment for all of us and the score is not so important because we should look back at the whole campaign with pride. We worked hard to get here and we deserved it. The Bernabeu was a fitting place to end our journey,” Jovanovic said.
And what a journey it has been.
