OMONOIA START STRONG, APOEL BATTLE BACK FOR DRAW

A pair of early goals gave Omonoia a head start, but Stefan Drazic rescued APOEL with a brace of his own, and in the end Omonoia and APOEL played to a 2-2 draw. Omonoia are now on 26 points, but fall into fourth place. APOEL now have 21 points, they will remain in fifth place. Both sides will next hit the pitch in UEFA Conference League action on Thursday. Omonoia will be at home to Rapid Wien, APOEL will be off to Armenia for a date with Noah in Yerevan.

It was the first installment of the Nicosia Derby at the Stadio GSP, with Omonoia as the designated home team. Ewandro Costa, a surprise in the Omonoia starting lineup had the first opportunity of the match, but he skied it over the net from outside the box. At the other end, Anastasios Donis found himself in space, but severely rushed his shot and it was nowhere near the net.

Omonoia drew first blood in the eleventh minute, Willy Semedo sped down the wing and found Ewandro Costa who crossed in for Loizos Loizou who did well to sneak the shot inside the near post and past Vid Belec who was quickly careening into position, 1-0 for Omonoia.

Omonoia struck again in short order. Just five minutes later, Semedo played the role of playmaker again and played Amine Khammas in on goal. Khammas found Veljko Simic who crossed it to Stevan Jovetic, and the veteran from Montenegro made no mistake, heading it past Belec, and it was quickly 2-0 for Omonoia.

Omonoia was looking for more and this time Semedo tried to get onto the scoresheet, but his attempt sailed over the net. APOEL looked to get on the board, Stefan Drazic sent Mateo Susic in on goal, but Fabiano did well to cut down the angle and make what ended up being a routine save.

APOEL did finally break through in the 33rd minute, this time it was Susic setting up Drazic in close quarters, and Drazic got just the touch he needed to put the ball past Fabiano. Omonoia’s lead was cut to 2-1, and that was the halftime score.

Costa tried to restore Omonoia’s two goal advantage, but his shot was right at Belec. Kostas Laifis had a go from distance, but it narrowly missed at the far post. Drazic tested Fabiano from the edge of the box, and the Brazilian keeper knocked it aside.

Drazic would have his second before long, though. After a wild scramble in front, the ball finally came off Alpha Diounkou right to Drazic, who finally had the space and time to shoot and he beat Fabiano just past the hour mark, the score now 2-2.

Neither side seriously threatened to break the deadlock after that. The closest either side came was a free kick off the boot of Khammas that Belec had no problem stopping.

Omonoia(Giannis Anastasiou): 40. Fabiano(GK, Captain), 2. Alpha Diounkou(’88 17. Giannis Masouras), 24. Amine Khammas, 5. Senou Coulibaly, 30. Nikolas Panayiotou, 20. Mateo Maric, 11. Ewandro Costa, 21. Veljko Simic(’72 76. Charalambos Charalambous), 7. Willy Semedo(’88 10. Omer Atzili), 75. Loizos Loizou(’72 99. Saidou Alioum), 8. Stevan Jovetic

APOEL(Manolo Jimenez): 27. Vid Belec(GK, Captain), 3. Radosav Petrovic, 8. Sergio Tejera, 10. Marquinhos(’28 77. Dieumerci Ndongala), 11. Anastasios Donis(’86 30. Marius Corbu), 16. Mateo Susic, 17. David Abagna(’78 70. Georgi Kostadinov), 19. Xavi Quintilla. 20. Stefan Drazic, 21. Pizzi(’46 23. Christos Kattirtzis), 34. Kostas Laifis

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC