OMONOIA KEEP RAPID AT BAY FOR CRUCIAL WIN IN VIENNA

Omonoia scored early through Angelos Neophytou, and for the next 71 minutes, defended beautifully, and held off Rapid Wien to win 1-0 in UEFA Conference League action in Vienna. With this win, Omonoia now have 8 points, and are up to 15^th place in the overall UEFA Conference League standings, comfortably in position to advance out of the League Phase for the second time in as many years, and still with an outside chance of possibly finishing top 8 and advancing straight to the Round of 16. Their League Phase finale will be in Nicosia at home to Polish side, Rakow. Rapid Wien are last in the entire competition, having lost all their matches.

Omonoia visited Rapid Wien at Allianz Stadion in Vienna. Francis Uzoho got the start in goal, and Rapid needed less than a minute to test him, Ercan Kara forced him to a save, which led to a corner that was cleared. Willy Semedo had a go from outside the box, and Niklas Hedl did well to turn that aside. Kara unleashed a powerful strike but it was blocked in front by Senou Coulibaly, wearing the armband.

Omonoia struck first, Semedo did well to dribble through two Rapid players, laid off for Fotis Kitsos, who centered in front to Evangelos Andreou. Andreou’s shot was blocked by Ange Ahoussou, but Angelos Neophytou pounced on the rebound, Hedl went down to try to stop the first shot and was out of position, and Omonoia in the 19^th minute were up 1-0.

Rapid began to push for a response, Nikolaus Wurmbrand uncorked a strike that beat Uzoho, but the post came to the rescue for Omonoia. Wurmbrand was able to get his next effort on target, but this time Uzoho was ready for it. Late in the first half, a cross came to Furkan Demir who got a header on net, but Uzoho stopped it with ease. An Omonoia corner and a late counterattack came to nothing, and the first half ended with Omonoia still up 1-0.

Rapid didn’t give up as the second half began. Kara let fly, Coulibaly deflected it, Uzoho adjusted and made the save, the rebound came to Matthias Seidl, the Rapid Captain, from a sharp angle, he hit the post, but the ball stayed in play and came to Wurmbrand, who mercifully put it over the net. Omonoia took a break from defending and Semedo led a rush up the left wing, cut into the box, got around Hedl, but ran out of space when it came time to pull the trigger. Romeo Amane found a shooting lane, but it was too narrow and the only place his shot could go was straight into Uzoho. Omonoia kept defending well, and hung on for the 1-0 win.

Rapid Wien(Stefan Kulovits): 1. Niklas Hedl(GK), 47. Amin Groller(’64 4. Jakob Scholler), 55. Nenad Cvetkovic, 20. Ange Ahoussou, 61. Furkan Demir, 29. Romeo Amane, 8. Lukas Grgic(’64 17. Tobias Gulliksen), 10. Petter Dahl(’10 15. Nikolaus Wurmbrand), 18. Matthias Seidl(Captain)(’64 90. Janis Antiste), 21. Louis Schaub, 9. Ercan Kara(’72 Claudy Mbuyi)

Omonoia(Henning Berg): 23. Francis Uzoho(GK), 2. Alpha Diounkou(’70 21. Giannis Masouras), 3. Fotis Kitsos, 17. Saad Agouzoul, 5. Senou Coulibaly(Captain), 14. Mateo Maric, 44. Novica Erakovic, 11. Ewandro Costa(’54 6. Carel Eiting), 7. Willy Semedo, 20. Evangelos Andreou(’70 10. Tasos Chatzigiovanis), 85. Angelos Neophytou(’89 8. Stevan Jovetic)

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC