CYPRUS RIDE STRONG FIRST HALF, COAST PAST MOLDOVA

It was a tale of two halves, and luckily Cyprus’s first half was just a little bit better than Moldova’s second half, and when the dust settled, Cyprus ended up with a 3-2 win in an international friendly at home to Moldova in Nicosia. Grigoris Kastanos scored early, and then Charalambos Charalambous had a pair of goals. Moldova battled back in the second half and made things quite interesting, but Cyprus did hang on.

This was Cyprus’s first win since October and first home win since the 21st of March last year, both against San Marino. This was Cyprus’s third ever meeting with Moldova, and they’ve now won two of the three. Cyprus lost a friendly to them in Chisinau in June 2024, but beat them in a friendly in Nicosia in August 2011. As of this writing, it seems Cyprus will next play in a friendly in Slovenia in June.

Cyprus hosted Moldova at the Stadio GSP in Nicosia, and they got the start they were looking for. Loizos Loizou laid off to Grigoris Kastanos, wearing the armband, and Kastanos latched onto it and beat Andrei Cojuhar at the near post, and just five minutes in, Cyprus were up 1-0.

Cyprus stayed on it, Charalambos Charalambous played an ambitious through ball that was precise enough to find Ioannis Pittas. Pittas found himself alone with just Mihail Stefan defending him, but instead made a smart pass to Loizou who hit it first time, but put it just over the net. A cross came in for Pittas, who headed it wide, but Kostas Pileas kept it in play and centered it for Charalambous who skied it over the net.

Not long after, Cyprus were finally able to double their advantage. Loizou let off a weak shot, but Cojuhar made an absolute mess of the rebound and Charalambous pounced on it for an easy goal, 2-0 for Cyprus on the half hour mark.

Cyprus did not let up, Andronikos Kakoullis came knocking, and Cojuhar made a good save to keep it out. Then Loizou crossed in for Kakoullis, but his touch failed him and he couldn’t pull the trigger. Kakoullis laid off for Charalambous who let fly from outside the box, but Cojuhar saw it all the way.

Charalambous would get his second however, as Pittas got around Daniel Dumbravanu and then set Charalambous up. Charalambous made a nice move to get away from Vladislav Baboglo, and with Cojuhar at his mercy, made no mistake, 3-0 Cyprus a minute before halftime, and that would be the halftime score.

Moldova pulled one back ten minutes into the second half. Ioan-Calin Revenco made a good run down the line and did well to find Petru Popescu cutting to the net, and though he waited 55 minutes to face a shot, Andreas Paraskevas would have no chance of stopping this one, Cyprus’s lead cut to 3-1.

Moldova now had some life and kept pressing, and international debutant Paraskevas finally got to make his first international save on a header by Sergiu Perciun. Then a cross came in for Revenco and Paraskevas tried to catch, but instead they collided with each other. The ball stayed in play and Stefan Bodisteanu put it on goal, but by the time he got the shot off, Paraskevas was back in position and made the save comfortably.

Moldova made it interesting late. Victor Stina took a long free kick that wasn’t meant to be a shot, but it cleared the wall, nobody got a touch, it bounced off the pitch over Paraskevas and into the net, Cyprus now clinging to a 3-2 lead in the 88th minute.

Stina then tried to level the match and came very close, ringing one off the outside of the post, and Paraskevas didn’t seem to have it covered. Then Bodisteanu nutmegged Panayiotis Andreou and then went down in the box looking for a penalty, but he was offside anyway, and Cyprus hung on for the 3-2 win.

Cyprus(Apostolos Mantzios): 1. Andreas Paraskevas(GK), 6. Giannis Satsias(’74 26. Andreas Shikkis), 4. Stelios Andreou, 3. Nikolas Panayiotou(’85 19. Evagoras Antoniou), 2. Kostas Pileas(’86 7. Anderson Correia), 5. Charalambos Charalambous(’61 17. Evangelos Andreou), 23. Chambos Kyriakou(’73 8. Ioannis Kousoulos), 20. Grigoris Kastanos(Captain)(’85 16. Panayiotis Andreou), 10. Loizos Loizou(’61 13. Ioannis Kosti), 11. Andronikos Kakoullis(’86 25. Angelos Neophytou), 9. Ioannis Pittas(’86 18. Nikolas Koutsakos)

Moldova(Lilian Popescu): 23. Andrei Cojuhar(GK), 19. Daniel Dumbravanu(’46 16. Danila Forov), 4. Vladislav Baboglo, 3. Mihail Stefan(’46 2. Stephan Negru), 6. Mihail Gherasimencov, 17. Dan Puscas(’37 21. Sergiu Perciun)(’80 18. Victor Bogaciuc), 8. Teodor Lungu(’46 7. Stefan Bodisteanu), 22. Vadim Rata(Captain)(’81 13. Victor Stina), 14. Ioan-Calin Revenco, 10. Vladimir Fratea(’58 15. Ion Bors), 9. Petru Popescu(’81 20. Sergiu Platica)

Andrew Mantzas @MantzasNC