OMONOIA FINISH STRONG FOR 3-1 WIN

Omonoia are in the driver’s seat after a late push earned them a 3-1 win at home to Georgian side Torpedo Kutaisi at the Stadio GSP in Nicosia in their UEFA Conference League qualifier. Omonoia will take this advantage to the return leg in Georgia in a week’s time. Malian defender Senou Coulibaly’s brace and another from new Brazilian signing Ewandro Costa provided the goals. This was Omonoia’s first win under new Lithuanian manager Valdas Dambrauskas, friendlies included.

Omonoia had the better of the play in the first half, but Amine Khammas and Charalambos Charalambous missed early chances. Willy Semedo was able to get one on target, but it was turned aside by Filip Kljajic. Fabiano, wearing the armband with Ioannis Kousoulos suspended, was able to deny Bjorn Johnsen to keep the match level.

Finally in the 41^st minute, Omonoia’s pressure paid off. On a corner, Khammas served up a ball that Senou Coulibaly headed past Kljajic to open the score, and Omonoia took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

The second half started more evenly, but the game turned more physical, and Slovenian referee Martin Magosa got busy showing yellow cards. But he seemed to have no problem with Momo Yansane tugging the shoulder of Coulibaly inside the box, allowing Yansane to sneak one past Fabiano to make it 1-1 in the 75^th minute, the only discipline being a yellow card against Fabiano for arguing.

New signing Ewandro Costa came in to replace Charalambous and he paid dividends, first finding Coulibaly for his second goal of the match just three minutes after the equalizer. The Brazilian played the free kick into the box, and Coulibaly found himself in space and tucked the finish past Kljajic to put Omonoia back ahead 2-1.

Then in the 84^th minute, Costa put himself on the scoresheet, working a give-and-go with Andronikos Kakoullis, who returned the ball to him, and he unleashed a well-placed finish past Kljajic to give Omonoia the all-important insurance goal, and they never looked back, with the final score 3-1 for Omonoia.

Omonoia(Valdas Dambrauskas): 40. Fabiano(GK, Captain), 17. Giannis Masouras(’89 2. Alpha Diounkou), 5. Senou Coulibaly, 30. Nikos Panayiotou, 24. Amine Khammas, 76. Charalambos Charalambous(’68 11. Ewandro Costa), 20. Mateo Maric, 80. Novica Erakovic, 21. Veljko Simic(’89 99. Saidou Alioum), 14. Mariusz Stepinski(’68 9. Andronikos Kakoullis), 7. Willy Semedo

Torpedo Kutaisi(Stephen Kean): 31. Filip Kljajic(GK), 12. Mamadou Sakho, 3. Pedro Monteiro(’73 18. Irakli Bidzinashvili), 5. Tsotne Madaraia, 16. Nika Sandokhadze, 20. Eliton Junior(’46 19. Momo Yansane), 7. Merab Gigauri(Captain)(’73 23. Tsotne Patsatsia), 22. Giorgi Mchedlishvili(’46 2. Warley), 14. Felipe Pires, 9. Bjorn Johnsen, 10. Nikola Ninkovic(‘90+2 27. Lasha Shergelashvili)

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC