MANTZIOS SELECTS MIX OF OLD AND NEW FACES

Apostolos Mantzios has made his callups to the Cypriot national team for Cyprus’s next two fixtures, both away, a friendly at Bulgaria in Plovdiv on Friday, and a World Cup qualifier at Romania in Bucharest on the 10^th of June.

Cyprus have only defeated Bulgaria once in 16 previous meetings, which came in 2009, there was also a draw, Bulgaria won the other 14. The history against Romania is similar, just one win in 15 previous meetings, three draws, and otherwise 11 Romanian victories, the one win for Cyprus came in 2000. Cyprus are familiar with Romania as they were just in the same group for the most recent edition of the UEFA Nations League.

Among this squad are some new faces, like Nikolas Koutsakos and Antonio Foti, who ironically was born in Bulgaria, he moved to Cyprus at the age of 14. He switched to Cyprus at the U16 level. Evagoras Antoniou was called up in the previous cycle, but has yet to make his debut. Otherwise, most of the usual suspects are present, with the exception of Ioannis Pittas who ironically plays in Bulgaria for CSKA Sofia.

Below is the complete roster:

GOALKEEPERS: Joel Mall(Servette), Neofytos Michael(Pafos FC), Dimitris Demetriou(Apollon Limassol)

DEFENDERS: Kostas Laifis(APOEL), Evagoras Antoniou(APOEL), Giorgos Malekkidis(Apollon Limassol), Anderson Correia(Aris Limassol), Andreas Shikkis(Omonoia Aradippou), Nikolas Panayiotou(Omonoia), Kostas Pileas(Pafos FC), Christos Shelis(Panaitolikos)

MIDFIELDERS: Rafail Mamas(AEL Limassol), Kostakis Artymatas(Anorthosis), Giannis Satsias(APOEL), Chambos Kyriakou(Apollon Limassol), Charalambos Charalambous(Omonoia), Ioannis Kosti(Levadiakos), Antonio Foti(Borussia Dortmund II), Grigoris Kastanos(Hellas Verona)

FORWARDS: Pieros Sotiriou(APOEL), Nikolas Koutsakos(Omonoia Aradippou), Loizos Loizou(Omonoia), Andronikos Kakoullis(AIK Solna), Marinos Tzionis(UTA Arad), Stavros Gavriil(Zulte Waregem), Marios Ilia(Pafos FC)

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC