Cyprus Cup clash abandoned due to crowd trouble

The Cyprus Cup quarter-final second leg in Limassol between home side Apollon and Nicosia’s Omonia was abandoned on Wednesday following crowd trouble.

The score was 3-1 to Apollon (5-3 on aggregate) when referee Leontios Trattos blew his whistle to call it a day after two earlier interruptions.

In the first half, Omonia fans unhappy with their team’s performance invaded the pitch and hurled flares, forcing an eight-minute interruption.

The first half finished 2-1 to Apollon.

Firecrackers and flares were again thrown onto the pitch by Omonia fans in the 72nd minute after their team went behind 3-1.

Trattos stopped the game again and visited the dressing rooms but returned after eight minutes. Following another two minutes of play, the trouble continued, forcing him to abandon the fixture.

Omonia are now sure to be kicked out of the competition by the Cyprus Football Association, with a fine likely to follow.

Earlier, Olympiakos and Doxa played out a 1-1 draw in Nicosia in the first leg of their quarter-final clash, while Anorthosis registered a 3-1 away win over AEK.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.