Apoel made it a great Easter weekend for the KOPA League by defeating East London team London Bari 3-1 to go on to win the LFA Sunday Challenge Cup the top London Sunday League Cup and they did it in style at the Dulwich Hamlets Stadium in South London.
To get there Apoel had to beat Fulham United, Dees FC, Phoenix FC and then the Turkish Cypriot team Yalova who play in the Turkish League in the semi final.
Well organised London Bari gave Apoel a tough fight in fact it was a midfield battle with either team goalkeeper not really being troubled in the first half. Laurent of Apoel had one good chance towards the end of the first half when one to one with the opposing keeper he hit it straight at him.
The start of the second half London Bari scored a headed goal within seconds after the break but it was sad to see the goal scorer go onto swear at the Apoel players in the dug out which resulted in him being sent off and his team down to ten men. Gursel Gulfer the manager of Apoel was also sent off in this incident which was unfair as he was only making the referee aware of what was going on.
Apoel still fail to take advantage of the extra man and London Bari were still dangerous and still probing for another goal. As the game went on Apoel were getting back in there with Jason Mason having a free kick saved by the London Bari Keeper and Vaso had his shot deflected just wide.
When it looked like a win for the East London team in the first minute of added time one of their defenders made a mistake in the penalty area allowing Apoel striker Laurent to latch on to the ball to shoot the ball straight into the back of the net and taking the game into extra time.
It did not take till the second half of extra time to liven up and it was an Apoel defender Michael Spencer who hit the ball from the edge of the box to make it 2-1. Then with five minutes to go Jason Mason had a shot saved by the London Bari Keeper and Richard Worrall was there to tap the ball into an empty net to make it 3-1.
A great win for Apoel and the first time they have won this trophy.The trophy was presented by Mr AJ Sharples a director of the LFA to the captain of Apoel Andreas Kalotheou.
Apoel have done very well this season under Andy Fellahoudi and Gursel Gulfer and the coaches Theo Constantinou and Chris Kyriacou they have ended up as KOPA league runners up and are in the Final of the divisional cup to play Tripimeni this Sunday. Also they are in the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup to play Cyprus Youth.
Other KOPA League games
KOPA Challenge Cup
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Quarter Final
Achna 0 Cetinkaya Cinar 2
Favourites Cinar dominated this game but struggled to find any real rhythm to get going and missed an array of chances, but scored on 27 minutes when Marcus Samuals header came off the cross bar but managed to head the rebound for 0-1. Achna never gave up and desperately tried to pull a goal back, without really threatening the Cinar goal. Cinar secured a place in the semi-finals, when a Josh Djelal shot went through the hands of the Achna keeper for 0-2. It wasn’t the expected goal rout, but comfortable enough to see Cinar through to play Tripimeni in the semi final.
Tripimeni 3 Omonia 1
Second division Omonia really gave first Division Tripimeni a good battle oin Bank holiday Monday at Whittington Park in fact Tripimeni took forty minutes to break the deadlock with a 35 yard cracker from Leon Spencer , Ahmet Rifat added a second in the 55th minute. Omonia had good chances they failed to score from the penalty spot and Keith snuffed a shot when he had the Tripimeni goal keeper beaten. To add to Omonia’s sorrows Nicky Rifat scored from the penalty spot with minutes to go giving Tripimeni a 3-0 win and a tie versus Cetinkaya Cinar in the semi final.
