APOEL crowned second division Champions
Second Division
Apoel 4 Komi Kebir 3: Apoel are the second division Champions for year 2012 a great achievement for the team that were relegated from the First Division last season. What a close high scoring game they had to achieve it in against a much improved Komi Kebir. Apoel led from the 14th minute with Matt Gulfer and straight after the break Mark Sophocleous made it two for Apoel. Komi got one back in the 63rd minute with Volkan, at this stage Komi Kebir went down to ten men when they had a player sent off that was just before Andrea Collins added a third goal for Apoel. Komi’s Andy Kyprianides then scored to make it 3-2 with Jason Mason scoring a fourth for Apoel and Mirauld scoring the last goal of the game for Komi giving Apoel a close 4-3 victory and the second division title which has left Komi Kebir to fight for promotion in 5th place on 24 points.
Olympia 2 Pendayia 1: Olympia are still chasing promotion and only require one point now to do so. It was a hard fought game on Sunday. The game started off how it meant to go on with Olympia having most of the possession but Pendayia creating most of the chances, so going into the half 0-0 was a fair score line.
Both teams came out fast in the second half and after 10 minutes Olympia took the lead with a header from Kiran. Both teams continued to create chances and after a good cross from the left from Sotiris Vassiliou, centre back Duncan Quigley slotted the ball away to even up the score line. However after 5 minutes, a mistake at the back from the Pendayia defence resulted in Ayhan having an open goal to slide the ball into the net and give the home team the victory.
Pantel 1 Arachne 2: The first half was goalless and straight from the second half kick off Andreas Georgiou scored for Pantel and it looked like it was going to be their first win in ages they hit the post twice too. That was until Arachne decided to do a late fight back and scored in the 85th minute from a corner headed in by Chris Constantinides. Arachne’s winner came in added time with a strike from their prolific goalscorer Leo Charalambous. This win lifts Arachne over Pantel to fourth from bottom whilst Pantel who were third from top at the earlier stages of the season are now third from bottom.
Anorthosis 3 Cyprus Youth (KLN) 0: Anorthosis are still in the running for promotion to the first division with a comfortable win over KLN who have improved immensely and battled right up to the end in fact they created lots of chances but their finishing was poor. Anorthosis led from the 30th minute with a goal from Fanos Chambi who also scored their second in the 65th minute. Danny Coolridge added a third in the 80th minute this win puts Anorthosis in fourth place on 25 points level with third placed Maronites.
First Division
Dynamo 3 New Salamis 3: Champions and top team New Salamis as usual struggled against Dynamo who seems to regularly get the better of New Salamis. Although Dynamo got a valuable point they have dropped to third from bottom as a result of teams that were below them last week winning. New Salamis were 2-0 up with goals from George Gregoriou in the first and 12th minute And before the half time break in the space of five minutes Dynamo scored two goals to equalise with their goals coming from Anthony Macdonald and Alex Violaris.
Steve Velandia scored from a penalty in the 75th minute and within minutes Dynamo popped up to score again with a decisive goal from Ricco.
Omonia 0 Tripimeni 2: Tripimeni are hot on the heels of league leaders New Salamis after this win putting them eight points behind New Salamis with two games in hand. Two goals in each half gave Tripimeni a vital win their goals coming from Alex Roussis and Ahmet Rifat. Omonia missed a penalty in the late stages of the game. Omonia are now second from bottom on 17 points and with two games left are desperate for points.
Brotherhood 1 Rizokarpasso 2: Rizokarpasso are slowly climbing up the table after a 2-1 win over Brotherhood in a tough competitive game. Rizo took the lead in the 20th minute with a cracking goal from Ben Andreas. Brotherhood equalised with a fine goal from their goal machine Aaron Kennedy in the 30th minute. The hero of the game was Jamie Brandon who tapped the ball into the back of the net from a Ben Andreas cross for the wiiner.
Panthea 1 Cetinkaya Cinar 4: Where have Cetinkaya Cinar found this much improved form, it’s beginning to look like they may be able to save themselves from relegation as this win lifts them out of the bottom three and one point behind Panthea. Cinar were winning 1-0 after 20 minutes when Marcus Samuel scored with a low shot. The second goal came from Habassi who headed the ball over the head of the oncoming Panthea keeper. A Sheldon header made it 3-0. Panthea then made it 3-1 with a goal from Mark Doyle. Hassan Ali finally made it 4-1 to Cetinkaya Cinar with a 40 yard thunderbolt.
Aradippou 4 AEL 5: Sad news as result of this game Aradippou have been relegated, they have been part of some very entertaining games in the First Division and in every match they played the opposing team knew they would have a tough game. I’m sure they will be back soon as they are a very well organised club and are a great example to all the other clubs in the KOPA League. AEL have eased their relegation worries by winning this game lifting them to fourth spot with 20 points.
What an exciting game this was great end to end action. AEL led 1-0 with a goal from Shane Williams then the game turned around when Aradippou were winning 3-1 but just before half time AEL scored two goals througha George Michael penalty and Shane Williams going into the break 3-3. In the second half there were more goals Shane Williams scored another two for AEL making him a four goal hero for AEL. Aradippou scored another finishing the game 5-4 to AEL. Aradippou’s goals were scored by Daniel, Filhat 2 and Oliver.