OMONOIA UNDONE BY PENALTY

Omonoia’s opener in this season’s UEFA Conference League campaign was an evenly played match, but Omonoia come up emptyhanded in a 1-0 loss at home to German side Mainz in Nicosia. A penalty was the difference, after a foul by Saad Agouzoul, converted by Nadiem Amiri, and that was it. Omonoia will next play on Sunday at home to Aris Limassol. Their next Conference League action will be on the 23^rd of this month in Pristina, they’ll be in the capital of Kosovo to visit Drita.

Omonoia hosted Mainz at the Stadio GSP in Nicosia. Fabiano suffered an injury and was ruled out for this one, and all the way through the upcoming international break, but the club are hopeful not much longer than that. In the meantime, Francis Uzoho in goal for this one, and he was pressed into action immediately, having to turn aside Paul Nebel. At the other end, Willy Semedo forced a save from Robin Zentner. Giannis Masouras gave it a go from a bad angle, and Zentner was ready for it. Ewandro Costa went on a good run and had plenty of passing options, but instead decided to shoot through traffic, and a weak effort went well wide.

Semedo from inside the box also snuck a shot through a maze of bodies and didn’t miss by much. Then on a Mainz corner, what seemed like a harmless cross by Aranud Nordin curled away from all assembled in the box and ended up hitting the inside of the post, but the bounce was merciful and Uzoho finally found it and covered it. Nordin played in another cross to Philipp Mwene who was wide open, but Mwene failed to get a touch. On the last play of the first half, Nordin’s strike caromed off the face of Omonoia Captain, Ioannis Kousoulos, and right to Armindo Sieb, but he put it over the net, and there was no score at halftime.

The opening minutes of the second half were a battle of attrition, with the two sides trading possession and failing to create any real chances. Finally Semedo did well to get himself into some space, but he failed to spot a wide open Angelos Neophytou, instead passing to Stefan Simic, who whiffed on his shot which was scooped up by Zentner. Novica Erakovic went on a run and tried to pass to Neophytou, but Neophytou wasn’t ready for it and it ricocheted off his back heel back to Erakovic who skied it over the net.

A collision in the Omonoia box led to Kaishu Sano to go in on goal, and Saad Agouzoul was late in his slide tackle, Sano went down and Mainz were awarded a penalty. Their Captain, Nadiem Amiri stepped up to take it, and sent Uzoho the wrong way to give Mainz a 1-0 lead in the 75^th minute. The match was then paused for three minutes as the Omonoia fans threw objects at the celebrating Mainz players.

When the match resumed, Omonoia struggled to get forward, failing to get past midfield on most rushes. Finally, Omonoia were able to earn a corner, Ewandro Costa got a header, but it was never a threat to Zentner and it went over the net. Omonoia continued to press, but a turnover sent Ben Bobzien the other way, Omonoia’s defenders got back and he passed to Nordin who hit the woodwork. Tasos Chatzigiovanis played in one last cross, Evangelos Andreou got a touch but Zentner was there too, and punched it away, the three whistles blew and Omonoia were on the wrong end of a 1-0 score.

Omonoia(Henning Berg): 23. Francis Uzoho(GK), 17. Saad Agouzoul, 5. Senou Coulibaly, 27. Stefan Simic(’80 2. Alpha Diounkou), 21. Giannis Masouras(’60 10. Tasos Chatzigiovanis), 31. Ioannis Kousoulos(Captain), 6. Carel Eiting(’60 44. Novica Erakovic), 3. Fotis Kitsos, 11. Ewandro Costa, 19. Ryan Mmaee(’60 85. Angelos Neophytou), 7. Willy Semedo(’80 20. Evangelos Andreou)

Mainz(Bo Henriksen): 27. Robin Zentner(GK), 48. Kacper Potulski(’64 37. Ben Bobzien), 16. Stefan Bell, 21. Danny Da Costa, 2. Philipp Mwene, 6. Kaishu Sano, 10. Nadiem Amiri(Captain), 22. Nikolas Veratschnig(’64 25. Andreas Hanche-Olsen), 8. Paul Nebel, 11. Armindo Sieb(’71 17. Benedict Hollerbach), 9. Arnaud Nordin

Andrew Mantzas

Twitter: @MantzasNC