APOLLON have won the Cyprus Cup after a 2-1 victory over Omonia at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol, with Angelos Angeli hitting the winner for the Limassol side with 20 minutes to go in a highly-charged final.
Apollon came out fighting from the very first whistle, not allowing Omonia time to settle on the ball and it paid dividends as they managed to take the lead as early as the fifth minute.
Fotios Papoulis picked up the ball on the edge of the box and curled a beautiful shot into the top left-hand corner of keeper Georgallides’ goal.
Omonia were clearly rocked by the early setback and, with their defence in total disarray, allowed Apollon to dictate play.
The Limassol team came close to increasing their lead twice in the space of five minutes. First da Silva’s free-kick came back off the crossbar and then Chambos Kyriacou shot wide when well-placed in the penalty area.
Having weathered the onslaught, Omonia gradually got back into the game and pushed further forward but they were unable to breach the well-marshalled Apollon backline. Their efforts were limited to dead ball crosses and their first shot on goal came a couple of minutes before the break but Florescus’ effort went wide of Vale’s goal.
Apollon though nearly doubled their advantage just before the break but Abraham Guie’s volley was comfortably saved by Georgallides.
Omonia came out for the second-half looking to get back on level terms and they managed to draw level five minutes after the interval when Renato Margaca beat Vale with a superbly taken free-kick from 25 metres out.
The goal settled Omonia’s nerves and for 20 minutes or so, they were slightly the better team but were unable to create any goal-scoring opportunities.
However they were let down again by their defence in the 72nd minute when they allowed Angeli to rise above everyone and head almost unchallenged past Georgallides.
As the clock ticked down, Omonia pushed forward in search of the equaliser but were unable to find a way past Apollon’s backline.
In fact it was the Limassol side who could have made the game safe but both da Silva and Guie failed to find the net from good positions.
Much was said before kick-off about who would be officiating the game but Croatian referee Simunovic handled the game well. He had to stop play when tens of flares were hurled onto the pitch by Apollon fans and the seven minutes of added time was warranted.
However, with Apollon fans encroaching onto the playing area, he was forced to blow the whistle a minute before the end of added time and raced straight into the tunnel.
The victory also gave Apollon a measure of revenge for the 2011 Cup final, where Omonia defeated their Limassol opponents 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time.
