OMONOIA BRING THE HEAT IN BAKU

Omonoia are in exceeding great shape to progress to the playoffs of the UEFA Conference League qualifiers, after an emphatic 4-0 rout over Araz-Naxcivan in Baku. Loizos Loizou had a brace, and Ewandro Costa and Stevan Jovetic extended the advantage even further in the second half. Omonoia will bring this advantage home for the return leg next week in Nicosia.

Omonoia visited Araz-Naxcivan at Dalga Arena in Baku, playing in the Azerbaijani capital as their usual home, Nakhchivan City Stadium in Nakhchivan does not meet UEFA standards. The hosts had the first chance, but Felipe Santos missed the target. At the other end, Loizos Loizou also missed the mark.

Omonoia were able to break the ice early however, as Willy Semedo forced Cristian Avram to a save, but the Moldovan keeper didn’t control the rebound well, and Ewandro Costa was able to pounce onto the loose ball and find Loizou who put it home, and put Omonoia up 1-0 in the 13^th minute.

Another goal wasn’t far behind. Semedo made a nifty pass that found Fotis Kitsos joining the rush, and Kitsos centered for Loizou who created enough space for himself to get a shot off, and he put another past Avram to double Omonoia’s advantage in the 22^nd minute.

The hosts tried to respond as Ba-Muaka Simakala put one on goal, but Fabiano turned it aside. Semedo tried to get on the board, but Avram was able to stop him, but Omonoia still took a 2-0 lead to halftime.

Halftime did nothing to slow Omonoia down, and ten minutes into the second half, Stevan Jovetic was able to settle a pass, get it through a pair of sliding defenders to Ewandro Costa who snuck a shot through a maze of bodies to make it 3-0.

The onslaught continued and this time the roles were reversed. Ewandro carried the ball down the wing, and Jovetic timed his run to perfection, doing well to stay onside, and he was otherwise unmarked to latch onto the cross and bury it past Avram, making it 4-0 for Omonoia just before the hour mark.

After that, Henning Berg called off the dogs, and made a series of substitutions, including recently signed Carel Eiting making his Omonoia debut in place of Ewandro Costa. After a benign last half hour of the match, Omonoia gratefully accepted a 4-0 win.

Araz-Naxcivan(Elmar Bakhshiyev): 12. Cristian Avram(GK), 77. Bruno Alexandre, 3. Bakhtiyar Hasanalizada(’76 44. Rahil Mammadov), 17. Issouf Paro(’46 2. Gara Garayev), 34. Urfan Abbasov(Captain)(’76 26. Omar Buludov), 6. Patrick Andrade, 19. Bar Cohen(’46 7. Hamidou Keyta), 29. Wanderson, 70. Charles Boli(’25 23. Nuno Rodrigues), 11. Ba-Muaka Simakala, 10. Felipe Santos

Omonoia(Henning Berg): 40. Fabiano(GK), 21. Giannis Masouras, 3. Fotis Kitsos, 30. Nikolas Panayiotou, 5. Senou Coulibaly, 31. Ioannis Kousoulos(Captain), 14. Mateo Maric, 11. Ewandro Costa(’86 6. Carel Eiting), 7. Willy Semedo(’82 2. Alpha Diounkou), 75. Loizos Loizou(’82 85. Angelos Neophytou), 8. Stevan Jovetic(’70 9. Mariusz Stepinski)

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC