ANORTHOSIS Famagusta were crowned Champions of Cyprus for the twelfth time in their history after beating Nea Salamina 2-0 with one league left to go.
The champions, who were virtually written off at the start of the season because of the financial mayhem at the club, finished off their conquest of the league title above the initial leaders APOEL, who lost their footing and their title in a 0-0 draw away to Apollon Limassol.
The 2004-2005 season will also be remembered as the season of Timuri Ketsbaia, the club’s player-manager who apart from finishing top scorer for the team this season was also in many people’s opinion considered the league’s best player.
Speaking to reporters after the game a smiling Ketsbaia said, “Our team was the best and won the title fairly. We endured some hardships during this campaign but we overcame them and as a result we are celebrating as champions. It still hasn’t sunk in exactly what we’ve achieved.”
Indeed, many are tipping 36-year-old Ketsbaia to win both the manager of the year and player of the year award. A crowning achievement for the former Newcastle United and AEK Athens Georgian who began his football career in Cyprus and will now end his career in Cyprus.
Anorthosis had a shaky first half in their game against Salamina and could have been punished early on had Salamina striker Athos Angelis been more consistent in front of goal. However, they picked up their form in the second period and took the game to their rivals with two goals in three minutes from Greek forward Nicos Froussos.
The first arrived on 58 minutes after Klimente Tsiataishvili’s header crashed onto the post and Froussos coolly slotted the ball beyond Salamina keeper Miroslav Seman. His second arrived minutes later after he chested a deep cross from the left and pinged his shot into the top right hand corner.
Meanwhile, APOEL saw their title hopes fall apart in front of a stubborn Apollon defence in Limassol. With time running out, chances went begging with both sides seeing efforts fizz narrowly wide while APOEL also had a penalty appeal turned away in the final minute.
APOEL and Cyprus international defender Stelios Okkarides said that both he and his teammates were devastated by the result. “On behalf of the players we have to apologise to our fans because an APOEL player should be doing much better than this. The only thing that we can do right now is congratulate Anorthosis for their victory of the title. We feel very let down but we still have the cup to play for so we need to find the strength to bounce back.”
Omonia clinched third place in the league with a 2-1 victory over AEL Limassol and have more or less clinched a place in next season’s UEFA Cup. AEL gave their hosts a rude awakening on 55 minutes as Petros Filaniotis blasted his shot beyond Demetris Leoni but Costas Kaiafas leveled on 70 minutes with a tidy finish before Akis Ioakim grabbed the winner.
Olympiakos Nicosia saw third place blow up in their face as they let a 2-0 lead slip in injury time against relegation strugglers AEP Paphos. Greek imports Demetris Meidanis and Georgos Papandreou gave the hosts a comfortable lead before an injury time surge from Angelos Efthymiou and Zsolt Hornyak brought the game level amidst sensational celebrations from the traveling Paphos fans.
In the other relegation dog fights Ethnikos Achnas defeated Alki Larnaca with a Christos Poyiatzis goal, AEK Larnaca and Enosis Neon Paralimniou draw 1-1 and fourth placed Dighenis Morphou beat bottom side Aris Limassol 4-1 in Limassol. Aris, Achnas and AEP are languishing in the relegation zone but Achnas and AEP could still survive if AEK and Alki slip up in their final games.
