By Iacovos Constantinou
In the weekend’s first division football games Anorthosis came back from behind to defeat Omonia while Othellos Athienou recorded their first away win in the first division against Nea Salamina. AEL’s dismal season continued as they crashed to their fourth defeat of the season while Doxa overcame Ayia Napa.
Two second half goals were enough to give Anorthosis all three points against Omonia who had taken a first half lead through a superb strike by Economides. Laifis headed home the equalizer early on in the second half and Makris rolled the ball into an empty net eight minutes from time after a blunder by Omonia’s keeper Moreira.
Anorthosis win was marred by racist chants from a section of their fans towards the end of the game, directed against Omonia striker Pote. This is the second game (first being against APOEL a couple of weeks ago) that the French-born Beninese international was subjected to racial abuse.
Ethnikos Achnas bounced back from a two goal deficit to defeat AEL by 4-2 in a game that will be remembered by referee Masias’s controversial decision to send off AEL’s striker Kantou for a second bookable offence for diving. The score at the time was delicately poised at 2-2.
AEL’s president Andreas Sofokleous issued a statement lambasting the Cyprus Football and claiming that referees intentionally ‘alter’ results.
For the record AEL took the lead through Bebe and Ionitsa while Juninhio pulled one back before the break. With the restart Ethnikos equalized through Adanda and Walder gave them the lead (76th minute) before Adanda got his second, a couple of minutes from the end.
Doxa Katokopias recorded their second win of the season after they defeated fellow strugglers Ayia Napa by 1-0.
The only goal of the game came in the 31st minute through Ramos. The home side were the better side and fully deserved their win against a depleted (through injuries) Ayia Napa.
In the final weekend game Othellos Athienou created an upset by defeating Nea Salamina 1-0 with their rookie keeper Jacouris producing two excellent saves in the final minutes of the game to ensure all three points for Othellos.
The goal that decided the game was a bizarre own goal. In an attempt to clear the ball Salamina’s Leandro hit it straight at his teammate Tsindi and the ball nestled in the back of the net.
The quartet at the top of the table play against each other tonight at 7pm with the top two APOEL and Apollon at home to AEK and Ermis Aradippou respectively.
