AEL vs Omonia Highlights 0-1 Cup Final

Big day finally. Coca Cola Cup Final. AEL vs Omonia in Nicosia. One could argue that Omonia wanted it more as AEL won the league but on the other hand AEL want the first double in their history.

The atmosphere was great, thousands of people filled the GSP stadium and made it a great place to play football in.

Omonia started the game better getting an early foul in a good position but it led to nothing. AEL managed to get some possession after that and tried to go forward using their wingers. It seemed as both managers studied their opponents well and would play a slow patient passing game.

Dickson was tripped in the area but was shown offside before the foul so no penalty was given in the disagreement to the AEL fans. Seconds later the Omonia fans were unhappy with Bebe’s foul on Karipides but the German referee didn’t award a yellow. First corner came for AEL fifteen minutes into the game with Gilberto executing but Omonia clearing well. From that Omonia counter attacked with Spougin who crossed a lovely ball to Alves who scored for Omonia on the 17th minute to make it 1-0 in the enlightenment of the Omonia fans.

Omonia was very confident after the goal and came close to a second moments after but AEL was defending well as always. Half hour into the game AEL started to come back from the goal conceded and started getting more organized up front. Just when AEL looked capable of getting a goal, Ouon got a straight red for a foul on Avraam. Replays show the AEL player stamping Avraam from the back after the Omonia player hit his leg in an attempt to get the ball off him. It’s been argued from both sides and considered to be a strict red card. Dede was forced to pull back and cover the gap left by Ouon.

Playing with 10 men, AEL seemed to play better as they were constantly up front. Best chance for AEL came with Dickson on the 36th minute when he shot just wide with only Giorgallides to beat. Omonia responded in the closing minutes of the first half with Alves once again being the center of attention. AEL’s had 53% possession over Omonia’s 47% in the first half with two chances on goal over Omonia who only had one chance but made the most out of it.

In the second half Omonia started better again with Makrides shouting wide from in front of the goal in the opening seconds. After that some AEL fans through some flares in the stadium causing a couple of minutes delay in play. When the game continued, Omonia kept pressuring for a second goal to finish the game. 10 minutes into the second half Avraam got a yellow card and was immediately replaced by Aloneftis, Larkou wasn’t taking any chances. Moments after that Pambos decided to make a chance of his own as he put on Edmar to replace Gilberto on the 60th minute.

The substitutions seemed to help AEL as Dickson and Bebe shot brilliantly from range but their shots were met by equally good saves from Giorgallides. AEL kept finding space and Dickson was constantly a threat for Omonia as the Englishman got a great header on the move but the ball was just wide moments after his shot forced a great save from Giorgallides. Omonia tried to counter attack and AEL’s Dede was forced to foul to interrupt the counter attack forcing the referee to award him with a yellow card on the 75th minute.

As time went AEL put the pressure up and were constantly attacking with Omonia forced to sit back and defend their one goal advantage. With 5 minutes left on the clock Christofi was introduced to replace goalscorer Alves in an attempt to hold onto the ball up front to maintain the score. It didn’t seem to work as AEL kept the ball in Omonia’s half and the nerves were running high all over the stadium. AEL won a corner on the 87th minute which led to a great shot from Edmar but he was unlucky as his shot was stopped by Giorgallides’s left post. AEL kept pressuring trying to create chances but Omonia was happy to kill off time by passing the ball around during injury time until the referee blew for full time seeing Omonia win the 2012 Cyprus Coca Cola Cup.

Players and fans went on to celebrate furiously for winning the cup for the second year in a row.

AEL Starting Line Up: Degra, Airosa, Dickson, Vouho, Junior, Carlitos, Bebe, Ouon, Dede, Nicholaou, and Gilberto.

Omonia Starting Line Up: Giorgallides, Alves, Avraam, Makrides, Aguiar, Spoungin, Alambi, Ben Dayan, Salatic and Karipides.

The referee was GermanFelix Brych.

Congratulations to Omonia and best of luck to both teams in Europe.

It’s worth mentioning that this final is Andreas Avraam’s third consecutive cup final. First year with Apollon then twice with Omonia.

It’s also worth mentioning that these two teams met in the final back in 1988 where Omonia won 2-1.

The game was watched by Cyprus president Demetris Christofias who went and shook hands with all players before the game started.

AEL can’t seem to win a final in Nicosia as it’s the third final they lost in this stadium over the years.

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Anorthosis vs APOEL Highlights 1-2

Last games of the season for several other teams today but all pointless as we already know who’s going down and who’s been crowned champion.

In Paralimni, ENP hosted the game against Olympiakos and it was the ultimate definition of one man show. José Semedo score all five goals for the Paralimni team in the 5-0 battering of Olympiakos.

In busy Larnaca today Alki got a tough victory over Apollon with a 1-0 score. Konte scored in the first half for the home team. It wasn’t a bad game actually, lots of chances for both teams with the ball hitting the post three times, twice for the visitors but still no goal for them. The other game in Larnaca was at Ammochostos where Salamina hosted the game against AEK. AEK scored first with Paulou early in the game but after that it was all Salamina. The home side equalized with Hadjipantelides on the 23rd minute and lost several chances after that hence the game finished 1-1 with the teams getting a point each.

Anorthosis and APOEL faced each other today in Larnaca with neither team bothered about the result. What interested people more is yesterday’s news about APOEL defender having agreed a contract to continue at Anorthosis in the new season.

Rumors also emerge on Boaventura re-joining Anorthosis as he wants a considerable increase on his wages although APOEL are not prepared to do so.

Anorthosis opened the gates for their fans to come and watch the game for free where as APOEL fans refused to attend the game in protest of the way Anorthosis played against AEL last week.

The home side started the game better and came close on a couple of occassions with Marquinhos and Laborde. Laborde in fact went through everyone, as always, but was stopped by his “teammate” Jorge who was then awarded a yellow card (check picture). It took 20 minutes for APOEL to warm up their engines but Solari couldn’t hit the target, neither did Trickovski. 17 minutes later though on the 37th minute, Marcinho took advantage of a defensive mistake from Colin to run past the Anorthosis keeper and make it 1-0 for APOEL which was the half time score.

In the second half Adorno came on for Manduca in what was suspected to be his last game for APOEL. Anorthosis started the same way they started the first half; with Laban feeding Laborde on the wing. Pindo and Colin for a yellow card each early on whilst Okkas came on for Marangos and Satsias came on for Pindo.

On the 60th minute the game got interesting. Anorthosis’s Konstantinou (goalkeeper) and Colin lost the ball and Trickovski run to shout only for Solari to pick up the deflected shot and score to make it 0-2 only for a second as Marquinhos run the entire wing and crossed to Okkas who made it 1-2. What’s interesting is that both goal scorers got yellow cards minutes after for arguing with each other.Kvikvelia got one as well moments after for a bad foul.

With 20 minutes left in the game Konstantinou came on for Roncatto on what was also suspected to be his last game as well. 10 minutes later Charalambides came on for Trickovski. The game remained slow and no real passion from either side as win or lose neither team had anything to gain from the game except from prestige and positive statistics.

Andic joined the yellow card club on the 80th minute when Makris came on for Laban, Makris is also rumored to be leaving as he’s asking for too much money. Anorthosis like the player but nothing has been decided as yet.

Despite being a goal down Anorthosis looked more defensive and let APOEL take control of the game as the team from Nicosia was after a third goal to finish off the game but nothing came from it and the game finish 1-2 for APOEL.

Despite Solari being APOEL’s top scorer by a margin, he’s also rumored to be leaving the club as he is their highest paid player with €280,000 a year. Some rumors suggest that he’ll be replaced by Anorthosis’s Rezek who didn’t play today due to “injury”. The Czech Republic striker has had enough of waiting for Anorthosis.

So Anorthosis finish fourth while APOEL and Omonia finish with level points but APOEL having second spot due to goal difference behind AEL.

Omonia vs AEL in Nicosia for their last game of the season. This, people said, would be a preview to the cup final next week. Well it wasn’t. To start with, Pambos Christodoulou started with his reserves as for the first time this season AEL started a game without Degra under their goal.

Again with no fans present, both teams started well with a couple of chances early on for each team but it was Omonia who looked more threatening. Despite having possession the home team didn’t make much of it. AEL on the other hand managed to get a couple of shots on target and corners but nothing to worry Giorgallides.

In the second half both teams started using substitutions giving some players with no much game play a chance but it didn’t help the pace or the quality of the game. Omonia with the biggest chance with Efrem but his shot was stopped by the post on the 52nd minute. Omonia seemed to want the win more than Omonia for prestige reasons and they managed to do so but in a controversial way. Efrem went in on his own to score and his shot took a big deflection from Kyriakou and the young Cypriot scored in his own net to make it 1-0 for Omonia on the 88th minute.

AEL players and fans now will be celebrating and rightly so after waiting 44 years to accomplish what they’ve finished today. Congratulations to AEL.

Both teams know where they’ll be next year. Ethnikos will be in the first division and Aris will be in the second division. So the game between them today in Limassol was pointless which is why there was no real passion between the two teams as well as almost an empty stadium.

It was a very slow first half with no pace and no team trying to take risks up front but it was the visiting team who scored with Pittaras’s header on the 39th minute.

In the second half it Aris decided to go for it as they wanted to go out in style and boy did they do just that. On the 68th minute Sosin scored from close range to make it 1-1. Less than a minute later Gelson went through everyone on his own to make it 1-2 and turn things around with 20 minutes left in the game. Ethnikos stepped in up after that and pressured for an equalizer and the came very close 15 minutes later with a shot from Erotokritou but his shot stopped on the post.

It wasn’t meant to be for Aris as Ethnikos won a last minute penalty that Ignatov scored to make it 2-2. So both teams finish the season with a draw.