Veteran forward Yiannis Okkas inspired Anorthosis to a 5-1 victory over Ethnikos Achnas on Monday night with the refugee club moving three points clear at the top of the league standings.
APOEL’s defeat to AEK on the weekend meant that Ronny Levy’s side had the chance to go sole leaders and the hosts made no mistakes as they fought back from a goal down at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium to seal a resounding win.
Anorthosis were showing nerves early on as Ethnikos struck the woodwork through Marco Paixao and then took through Elias Vattis on 30 minutes.
But Okkas – whose recent performances have seen the Cyprus FA pleading with him to reconsider his international retirement – pulled his side level moments later after collecting a pass from Ricardo Laborde.
The 35-year-old Okkas was again in the mix of things as he left several Ethnikos players for dead to tee up Jan Rezek on 42 minutes and their was still enough time for a third right before the break as Juliano Spadacio beat Croatian keeper Marko Sarlija with a clever free-kick.
Anorthosis’ fourth goal once again came courtesy of Okkas as he set up Israeli striker Barak Yitzhaki for his first goal for the club since arriving on loan from Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Spadacio added the fifth from the penalty spot ten minutes before the end after Spanish midfielder Toni Calvo went tumbling in the area under the challenge of Oliviera.
Cyprus Weekly
