APOEL clinch title

APOEL secured a record 23rd league title on Saturday, a first double since since 1996 and a first successful defence of their Cypriot title since 1949 after beating AEL 1-0 in Larnaca.

@CillianSheridan

The victory capped off the perfect season for the Nicosia club that added the league crown to their Cypriot Cup and Cypriot Super Cup trophies.

Giorgos Donis’ APOEL, who needed to win their league title deciding replay in order to pip Ivaylo Petev’s side to the league crown on a better head-to-head record, scored on the brink of halftime through Irish striker Cillian Sheridan.

They then defended stoutly for the remainder of the contest that was played behind closed doors at the neutral Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium. The initial game between the two sides on May 17 had been abandoned after APOEL player Kaka was struck by a firework thrown from the stands of the AEL supporters.

The abandonment of the game led to the tribunal calling for a replay and more chaos with the APOEL hierarchy and fans staging a protest outside the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) headquarters calling for CFA boss Costakis Koutsokoumnis to resign. Uncertainty over who would be crowned Cypriot champions deepened further when the appeals committee – set to rule on APOEL’s objection to the tribunal ruling – all resigned citing “outside pressure”.

The game was a cagey affair with first AEL defending well and APOEL struggling to make the break through. But the roles reversed when APOEL managed to sneak in front. Vinicius found space outside the area and unleashed a powerful volley that Karim Fegrouche parried into the path of Sheridan and the former Celtic and CSKA Sofia forward swept home the rebound.

AEL missed a glorious chance to level the tie in stoppage time when Dede was found unmarked in the area but his effort from close range was smothered to safety by APOEL keeper Urko Pardo.
Match hero Sheridan, who joined the Cypriot champions last summer, refused to take all the plaudits for his title winner. “This is the most important goal of my career”, the 25-year-old,  1.96m player told television reporters.

“Everybody else won it. I was lucky to score the goal. We had a lot against us, we know we had to stay focused and we did that!”

His coach Donis, who jokingly told midfielder Thiago Gomes that he would get a €1,000 fine after pouring water over him at the final whistle, is already looking ahead to Europe in the summer where APOEL will attempt to re-live their famous Champions League exploits of 2011-2012 when they reached the quarterfinal stage of the competition.

“This is the end result of a massive effort,” said the Greek coach who has in the past coached AEK Athens and PAOK. “My players have been working very hard and deserve a big congratulations. We thank the fans for all their help too. We need to prepare for Europe and to make this squad even better in the summer. The champions route in the [UEFA] Champions League is what we wanted also because it is less hard for us.”
Along with captains Constantinos Charalambides and the outgoing Marinos Satsias, Nektarios Alexandrou has been at the Nicosia club since he was a teenager and the Cypriot international was glad to make history for his team.

“This is an indescribable feeling,” he said. “This is the hardest title we’ve ever won. I never experienced winning a double or a back-to-back and we did that today so this win is brilliant.”

@apoelgroup 

incyprus.philenews | 02 June 2014 11:36