AEL top of the table for Christmas as Ermis stop Apollon

By Nemanja Bjedov
AEL Limassol sit alone on top of the Cyprus football championship ahead of the winter break after Apollon were held to a goalless draw by Ermis away from home in what was billed as the most interesting game of Round 14, but Omonia’s 3-2 win over Anorthosis ended up being the match of the round.

“Obviously I am not happy with the final result. Everybody could see what was happening on the pitch as the game was live on television. I want to wish everyone Merry Christmas. In few days from now I will be at home with my family, because Christmas is a very important celebration for us and it is really not the right time now to say anything else,” a visibly disappointed Anorthosis coach Jorge Costa, said after the game.

Roberto Colautti put the visitors ahead with his ninth goal of the season just after the half an hour mark, but Maltese striker Andre Schembri levelled the score for the home side in the last minute of the first half.
Ten minutes into the second half Marco Soares converted a penalty to put Omonia ahead, while Schembri added another goal to his season’s tally to make it 3-1 ten minutes from time. Gonzalo Garcia set up the final score in the 89th minute, three minutes after Omonia’s Anthony Scaramozzino was sent off. The Ammochostos side also had a player sent off as their skipper Dan Alexa was given his marching orders midway through the first half.

AEL beat Ethnikos Achnas 3-1 at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol on the back of Orlando Sa’s first half brace and they now top the league standings with 33 points, while their city rivals Apollon are second with 31.

Giorgos Donis’ APOEL climbed up to third place with 29 points after a convincing 3-0 victory over Enosis in Paralimni, while Ermis Aradippou and Omonia are fourth and fifth respectively with 27 points apiece. Anorthosis are sixth with 26 points.

Elsewhere in Round 14, Aris and Alki played out a goalless draw in Limassol, while AEK Larnaca overcame AEK Kouklion 3-1 at the GSZ Stadium. When Hakeem Araba leveled the score for the visitors at 1-1 with thirteen minutes left to be played, it looked as though AEK’s dismal form this season would continue, but they eventually found ways to score twice more and secure only their third home victory of the season.

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.