Apollon face Omonia in big clash in Cyprus

By Iacovos Constantinou

THE standout game in this weekend’s Cyprus football championship is Monday night’s clash between second-placed Apollon and Omonia, a place below, at the Tsirion stadium in Limassol.

Leaders APOEL meanwhile play hosts to Doxa in the other Monday night game while on Sunday AEL are away to Ayia Napa.
Apollon coach Antone rested some of his key players against Borussia Mönchengladbach in Thursday’s Europa League defeat, showing clearly what his priorities are. Sangoy, Adrande, Lopes and Paboulis, are all set to return to the starting line-up while Rezek will face a late fitness test.

Omonia coach Kaiafas is expected to ring the changes following his team’s humiliating home defeat last week to Ayia Napa. He has a full squad to choose his starting eleven from knowing full well that his side must avoid defeat so that the two teams leading the race do not open up a double digit gap.

AEL travel to the Tasos Marcou stadium to face Ayia Napa with the pressure
on Bulgarian coach Petev following some disappointing results. Should AEL fail to win it is almost certain that Petev will be shown the door.

Ayia Napa players will be in buoyant mood following their unexpected win against Omonia last week and will be looking to record their second consecutive win in the league against AEL.

Anorthosis picked up their first away points last week and will be looking for their third straight win against Ethnikos Achnas. They will be without Avraam again, who only recently returned from a long-term injury, and possibly Polo.
Despite a bright start to the season, Ethnikos’ form has dipped in recent weeks and this has seen them slip perilously close to the relegation zone.

Ermis Aradippou entertain first division novices Othellos Athienou in a game where Ermis are favourites to collect the three points.
Othellos are an unpredictable team who can create a lot of problems for Ermis, especially if the home side do not manage to score early on in the game.

AEK Larnaca and Nea Salamina will battle it out at the GSZ stadium in a game that can go either way. Both teams were disappointing in their previous games with AEK drawing with Othellos and Nea Salamina losing to Anorthosis.

The final game of the round sees APOEL taking on Doxa Ktokopias at the GSP and any result other than a win for the defending champions will be a major surprise.

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.