AS they continue to defy the odds, one of the words commonly associated with this APOEL team has been that of belief.
The squad has consistently shown great faith in their ability to progress in a competition that saw them labelled first as underdogs and then pretenders, where the logic of their participation in the tournament at the expense of sides from the more illustrious European leagues has come under scrutiny.
However, on Wednesday night, as they extended their unbeaten run to five games after a 0-0 draw away to Zenit St Petersburg and in doing so becoming the first Cypriot club to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, the feeling among the APOEL players was one of real disbelief, as they struggled to come to terms with the magnitude of their achievement.
“This is the biggest day and the biggest moment in the history of this football club. I don’t think anyone has really realised what has happened, especially as we were in such a tough group. This is the greatest moment of everyone’s life in our team tonight,” APOEL captain Constantinos Charalambides said after the game.
The Cypriot press were also in a similar state of disbelief at APOEL’s historic feat. ‘Living a dream’ screamed the headline in yesterday’s Goal, Phileleftheros’ sports supplement. On Politis’ back page, a picture showing APOEL’s players celebrating at the Petrovski stadium was accompanied by an article with the words ‘thank you’ written 46 times before closing with the phrase: ‘A thousand thanks to APOEL’.
For a lot of the players that APOEL have signed in the last two years since their inaugural 2009 Champions League campaign, the possibility of playing in Europe’s premier competition may have featured in their thinking when deciding to join the club.
However qualifying from a group which includes Zenit, two-time European champions Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk, ranked 11th in Europe and quarter-finalists last season, certainly was not something they had anticipated.
“This is the best moment of my career. This night for me is a miracle. I never imagined that this success would happen when I arrived in Cyprus. I always hoped that I could play in the Champions League but to go through is a big plus,” Brazilian winger Gustavo Manduca said after the game.
Paradoxically, APOEL’s performance on Wednesday in Russia was possibly the worst they have played so far in the competition, as they managed only a single attempt on Zenit’s goal – and a tame one at that.
However, through a mixture of organisation at the back which involved brave and at times last-ditch defending, good fortune and a sense that they deserved a place in the knockout stages, their first clean sheet in the competition was enough to put APOEL and Cypriot football with it, on the map.
APOEL will definitely finish first in Group G if they beat Shakhtar in Nicosia on December 6, however even a point could be enough for the Cypriot champions depending on the result between Porto and Zenit.
While coach Ivan Jovanovic insisted there was still work to be done, declaring that APOEL’s aim “is to secure first place in the group and to put on a good show once again when we play Shakhtar”, his players are already dreaming of their possible opponents in the last 16.
“Everyone wants to face Barcelona, Real or Milan,” Cypriot defender Athos Solomou told gazzetta.gr in an interview yesterday.
