Omonia eye cup final after beating APOEL

OMONIA coach Neophytos Larkou was pleased with his team’s 1-0 victory over arch-rivals APOEL in the final round of the national football championship playoffs at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia on Wednesday night.

“I would first like to congratulate APOEL on winning the title as they have one of the best coaches in Cyprus in Ivan Jovanovic. In regards to the game, of course we did not expect many fans as the game had no importance standings wise, but it is always a derby with both teams trying to win it,” said Larkou.

“We were focused throughout the game and tried to improve step by step. My players are gradually starting to understand each others’ style of play. However, we are missing some minor details and this is what we will have to work on before the cup final next week,” Larkou concluded.

APOEL, who went into the match with a 14-point lead over the Greens, had a great chance to open proceedings in the eighth minute when Ailton Jose Almeida was deemed to have been taken down in the penalty area by Omonia’s Montenegrin goalkeeper Dragoslav Jevric, but the experienced Jevric stopped Gustavo Manduca’s spot kick.

Ten minutes later Jevric prevented Constantinos Charalambides from scoring after the prolific midfielder found himself clean through on goal after Andreas Avraam’s miss kick.

Omonia took the lead in the next attack though as Bruno Aguiar drilled an 18-metre strike into Dionisis Chiotis’ net.

“I am very satisfied with the match and the way all of my team mates approached it and performed. We were running and fighting from the kick-off and of course that brought us the victory which was very important for us,” commented Jevric who was eventually voted man of the match.

“The national cup final is a one-off game and we now have seven days to prepare for it. I hope we will all give 100 per cent and hopefully that should be enough to win the trophy,” he concluded.

The cup final between Omonia and defending cup holders Apollon Limassol is scheduled for next Wednesday at the GSZ Stadium in Larnaca with the kick-off set for 6.30pm.

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.