OMONOIA EDGE FEHERVAR, JOB NOT DONE YET

Omonoia took care of business in the home leg with a 1-0 win in their UEFA Conference League qualifier against Hungarian side Fehervar, thanks to a goal from Mariusz Stepinski, but given the run of play, it probably should have been more. There is also some dubious history to consider. Omonoia have on seven occasions, won the first leg at home by one goal, and bizarrely, only once did they go on to advance. That being the case, Omonoia still has much work to do before starting to prepare for the qualification playoffs.

Omonoia hosted Fehervar at the Stadio GSP in Nicosia, and came out strong in the early going. An early corner fell for Nikolas Panayiotou, but he shanked it wide. Willy Semedo played in a tantalizing ball for Mariusz Stepinski, who got the requisite touch on it, but Balazs Toth did very well to cut down the angle and make the save. Against the run of play, the visitors got a chance, but Matyas Kovacs skied it over the net guarded by Fabiano.

Toth then denied Veljko Simic from distance, and then Stepinski put a header wide. The best chance once against fell to Stepinski, Alpha Diounkou crossed in for him, he got a touch, but the chance went off the post and stayed out. Another Stepinski header over the net, and a save by Toth off the boot of Semedo closed out the first half.

Toth continued to keep his side in it in the second half, as Omonoia kept pushing. Simic did well to create a shooting lane for himself, he unleashed a strike turned aside by the Hungarian keeper, the rebound came to Semedo, and Toth scrambled across to make that save, too. Fabiano made his first save of the match on Tobias Christensen, and the rebound went wide.

On the hour mark, Omonoia finally broke down the door. Diounkou once again crossed in for Stepinski, and this time, Stepinski finally caught a break, and with a somewhat awkward volley, bounced one off the ground and past Toth, to finally break the ice, and give Omonoia a 1-0 lead.

Omonoia hoped to open the floodgates from there, but goals remained hard to come by. Diounkou found himself in space, but missed the net. Then, new arrival Omer Atzili missed the net from outside the box in stoppage time. Andronikos Kakoullis on the last play of the match released a powerful header, but it was blocked in front by Nikola Serafimov, and Omonoia had to settle for a 1-0 advantage to take to Hungary.

Omonoia(Valdas Dambrauskas): 40. Fabiano(GK, Captain), 2. Alpha Diounkou, 5. Senou Coulibaly, 30. Nikolas Panayiotou, 24. Amine Khammas, 20. Mateo Maric, 11. Ewandro Costa(’71 76. Charalambos Charalambous), 80. Novica Erakovic(’88 31. Ioannis Kousoulos), 21. Veljko Simic(’88 10. Omer Atzili), 14. Mariusz Stepinski(’81 9. Andronikos Kakoullis), 7. Willy Semedo