OMONOIA FINISH OFF FEHERVAR

Omonoia are into the UEFA Conference League qualification playoffs in style, after a 2-0 win away to Hungarian side Fehervar. Willy Semedo and Andronikos Kakoullis scored for Omonoia, securing the 3-0 aggregate win when combined with last week’s 1-0 home win. This marks just the second time out of eight that Omonoia were able to finish the job after winning by one goal in the first leg at home, hopefully bucking that trend. Omonoia have just one more hurdle to clear, which will be Zira from Azerbaijan.

Omonoia visited Fehervar at Sostoi Stadion in the Hungarian city of Szekerfehervar. Early on, Omonoia had a free kick in a good position, and Amine Khammas forced a good save from Balazs Toth. Saidou Alioum kept the play alive and found Veljko Simic who let fly from the edge of the box, and Toth acrobatically denied him as well.

Later, Mariusz Stepinski crossed in for Simic, who put a powerful header on goal, but once again Toth had the answer, picking up right where he left off last week in Cyprus. Omonoia kept hammering away and Nikolas Panayiotou put a header off the post. Bence Bedi gave it a go from a distance, but put it wide, and Fabiano appeared to have seen it all the way anyway.

It was some nifty passing that finally put Omonoia on top. Alioum laid off for Alpha Diounkou, who played it back to Alioum, who quickly found Mateo Maric, who alertly played it wide for Simic, who centered it back in front for Willy Semedo, who calmly tucked it in past Toth in the 28th minute.

Any hopes of Toth being shaken were quickly dashed as Semedo found himself bearing down on the Hungarian keeper alone, but Toth won the battle of wits, and Semedo was unable to dribble around him. Fehervar finally got their first shot on target from their Captain, Aron Csongvai, but Fabiano was in position and knocked it down easily. Omonoia took a deserved 1-0 lead into halftime.

Fehervar got the first good chance of the second half, a cross came in for Bedi, but his header just barely sailed over the crossbar. Then, Matyas Kovacs centered it out in front, the ball went through a maze of bodies, and Patrik Kovacs found it first, but Fabiano turned him aside from point-blank range.

Instead, Omonoia put the finishing touches on their victory. Simic spotted Charalambos Charalambous in space, and Toth once again at full extension made the save. In stoppage time, the second goal finally came. Maric passed to a guarded Andronikos Kakoullis, who won the physical battle and got to the ball first, sending it back to Simic, who went wide to create some space. He found Charalambous coming to the net, and Chambo forced yet another highlight reel save from Toth, but the rebound sat there for Kakoullis who poked it home past an exasperated Toth.

Omonoia(Valdas Dambrauskas): 40. Fabiano(GK, Captain), 2. Alpha Diounkou(‘90+2 17. Giannis Masouras), 5. Senou Coulibaly, 30. Nikolas Panayiotou, 24. Amine Khammas, 20. Mateo Maric, 99. Saidou Alioum(’46 76. Charalambos Charalambous), 80. Novica Erakovic(’82 31. Ioannis Kousoulos), 21. Veljko Simic, 14. Mariusz Stepinski(’90 9. Andronikos Kakoullis), 7. Willy Semedo(’81 10. Omer Atzili)

Fehervar(Tamas Peto): 22. Balazs Toth(GK), 4. Csaba Spandler, 7. Ivan Milicevic, 31. Nikola Serafimov, 8. Bohdan Melnyk(’46 21. Andras Huszti), 99. Milan Peto(’46 74. Bence Babos), 27. Bence Bedi, 14. Aron Csongvai(Captain), 77. Matyas Katona(’75 15. Matyas Kovacs), 20. Tobias Christensen(’57 11. Nicolas Stefanelli), 70. Filip Holender(’46 19. Patrik Kovacs)

Andrew Mantzas
Twitter: @MantzasNC