Cyprus championship resumes after long break

By Iacovos Constatinou

The Cyprus football championship resumes this weekend after a three-week break – two weeks because of Cyprus’ Euro 2016 qualifying games, and a further week was needed for the reseeding of the football pitches.

League leaders APOEL will have to forget about their midweek disappointment against French moneybags Paris St. Germain in the Champions League and concentrate once again on the domestic front. It is expected that coach Giorgos Donis will rest a number of players with summer star signings Rafeek Djebbour and John Arne Riise expected to make the starting line-up.

Their opponents Nea Salamina are enjoying a good run and are unbeaten since the opening game of the season. They defeated Apollonas with consummate ease in their last game and are just one point off second place. Their coach Neophytos Larkou has no injury worries and will field his strongest possible team.

AEL travel to Larnaca to face AEK in a game that can go either way. Despite being at the top end of the table both teams lack consistency with AEL failing to win two consecutive games in all ten official games so far.

On the other hand AEK needed an injury time goal to defeat bottom of the table Ayia Napa in their last match.

Omonia, currently languishing in a mid-table position, hope to kick-start their season with three points against one of the relegation candidates for the season Doxa Katokopias. Doxa though will take heart from their first win of the season away to Ethnikos three weeks ago and will try to upset the Nicosia side.

At the Antonis Papadopoulos stadium, Anorthosis will be favourites to overcome first division upstarts Othellos Athienou. The coach of the Famagusta side Andre Paus has no major injury concerns and has a full squad to choose from.

Othellos have impressed in some of their games so far, more so against champions APOEL where they were desperately unlucky not to win the game.

In the final weekend game Ermis play hosts to Ayia Napa and anything other than a win will be considered a bad result.

On Monday weary Apollonas will need to battle hard to take all three points against Ethnikos Achnas in Limassol

Saturday, October 25th : Doxa vs Omonia (18.00), AEK vs AEL (19.00)
Sunday, October 26th :Ermis Aradippou vs Agia Napa, (18.00), APOEL vs Nea Salamina & Anorthosis vs Othellos Athienou (19.00)
Monday: Apollonas vs Ethnikos Achnas (19.00)

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.