By Andreas Vou
Apollon all but booked their place in the third qualifying round of the Europa League with a 4-0 win over FK Trakai in the first leg of their second-round clash in Larnaca on Thursday night, while Omonia played out a respectable 0-0 draw away to Jagiellonia Bialystok.
Apollon’s Georgios Kolokoudias had a frustrating night in front of goal in last week’s encounter against FC Saxan and looked keen from the offset to make amends against the Lithuanians. On 20 minutes, the Cypriot international got his reward for his perseverance with a well taken finish – his first official goal for the club since joining from Ayia Napa.
Apollon were dominant in the first half and perhaps should have gone into the break with a bigger advantage. Their patience paid off however as, just seven minutes into the second half, Luka Stojanovic doubled their lead with a close range header.
Twelve minutes later, Kolokoudias doubled his personal tally from the penalty spot to put Apollon out of sight.
Just when Apollon thought the night could not get any better, substitute Farley Rosa capped off the evening with a spectacular overhead kick to make the Limassol club’s progression to the next round a formality.
Omonia travelled to Poland to take on Jagiellonia who boast an impressive home record and their 8-0 win in last week’s first-round second leg served as a stern reminder for the Cypriots that, despite being favourites, caution would be required.
Backed by an intimidating crowd of around 15,000 supporters, the Poles were the ones forcing the issue while Omonia were content to absorb pressure and attempting to break on the counter-attack.
In what was a cagey affair throughout, there were few significant chances. The clearest opportunities both came in stoppage time of both halves, both falling to Jagiellonia and both denied by impressive work from Omonia’s 20-year-old goalkeeper Constantinos Panayi.
Towards the end of the first period, an in-swinging cross caused confusion in the penalty area and was heading towards the far corner of the net until an excellent stop from Panayi onto the post kept the score level.
And in the final minutes of the match, a whipped cross into the box fortunately ricocheted into the path of Patryk Tuszynski but Panayi was quick to read the situation and stopped the striker with a sliding tackle, giving Omonia a positive result going into next week’s return match in Nicosia.
Results from the UEFA Europa League Qualification Round 2 first leg matches on Thursday:
Jagiellonia Bialystok (Poland) – Omonia Nicosia (Cyprus) 0-0
Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) – Trakai (Lithuania) 4-0
West Ham (England) – Birkirkara FC (Malta) 1-0
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) – UCD (Ireland) 1-0
Spartak Trnava (Slovakia) – Linfield (Northern Ireland) 2-1
Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia) – PAOK Salonika (Greece) 2-1
Trabzonspor (Turkey) – FC Differdange 03 (Luxembourg) 1-0
FC Vaduz (Liechtenstein) – Kalju Nomme (Estonia) 3-1
Charleroi (Belgium) – Beitar Jerusalem (Israel) 5-1
Kukesi (Albania) – Mladost (Montenegro) 0-1
FC Copenhagen (Denmark) – Newtown (Wales) 2-0
AIK Stockholm (Sweden) – Shirak Gyumri (Armenia) 2-0
Beroe Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) – Brondby (Denmark) 0-1
Cherno More Varna (Bulgaria) – Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) 1-1
Koper (Slovenia) – Hajduk Split (Croatia) 3-2
Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic) – Stromsgodset IF (Norway) 1-2
Hapoel Beer Sheva (Israel) – FC Thun (Switzerland) 1-1
Shakhter Soligorsk (Belarus) – Wolfsberger AC (Austria) 0-1
Dacia Chisinau (Moldova) – Zilina (Slovakia) 1-2
Randers (Denmark) – Elfsborg Boras (Sweden) 0-0
Skonto FC (Latvia) – Debrecen (Hungary) 2-2
FK Jelgava (Latvia) – Rabotnicki Skopje (FYR Macedonia) 1-0
Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan) – Alashkert (Armenia) 3-0
