Joy and despair in Europa League (updated)

By Andreas Vou

It was a night of the starkest of contrasts for Apollon and Omonia against the two sides from Moscow as the Limassol club pulled off a sensational 1-4 victory against Lokomotiv while Omonia suffered injury-time agony against Dynamo in a 1-2 loss.
After just two minutes, it had looked as though Gaossou Fofana had put Omonia ahead but it was chalked off for offside. Their 2-2 draw in Moscow last week had given them a narrow advantage to protect in Nicosia but it quickly vanished as Milan Stepanov scored an own goal to put the Russians ahead.
Mickael Pote made it 1-1 with an excellent header from Cristovao Ramos’ cross on 22 minutes, a scoreline which would have seen Omonia through. The score remained until deep into injury time when Dynamo controversially scored the match winner through a Christopher Samba header. Omonia furiously protested for a foul on keeper Jose Moreira while the big centre-back appeared to be offside from the initial cross, but their protests fell on deaf ears and Omonia’s European dream will remain on hold for at least another year.
Apollon, on the other hand, caused a major upset against Lokomotiv Moscow, not only because they won on a difficult ground but in the manner in which they did so.
Former Anorthosis striker Jan Rezek stunned the home crowd after 20 minutes with a brilliant header which went in off the crossbar.
Gaston Sangoy returned to the lineup after missing out on the first leg due to suspension and the Argentine made a telling impact, striding past the experienced Vedran Corluka before crossing the ball to Fotis Papoulis, who put Apollon 0-2 up on 50 minutes.
Yet there was still time for more as Thuram and Hugo Lopez turned the game into a rout late on, before Roman Pavlyuchenko’s consolation goal, as Apollon cruise into the Europa League groups for a second successive season.
There were no surprises at White Hart Lane where AEL took on Tottenham Hotspur aiming to overturn a 1-2 deficit from the first leg. Ivaylo Petev’s men went down 3-0 to the North Londoners in a one-sided affair.

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