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Anorthosis: Season in Review


Omonoia9

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This is Omonoia9: The Phantis King of Cyprus, and I'll be reviewing the seasons of the 3 teams in which we have sections. Today, we will look back on the 2008-2009 season of Anorthosis. As it goes for most top level Cypriot clubs, the season starts early with European football, as early as July. Usually, the clubs that represent Cyprus may win a round or 2 and then be done and focus on the Cypriot season, but this year, all 3 clubs caught fire. No club did it quite like Anorthosi though. After winning the first 2 rounds of Champions League qualifying, they were supposed to get slaughtered by none other than Greek kingpins, Olympiakos, my second favorite club in the world. Well in Leg 1, the reverse happened, and the Stadio Antonis Papadopoulos proved a hellhole for the Piraeus giants, as Anorthosis beat OSFP into submission, to send it to Piraeus 3-0 in their favor. Few questioned Olympiakos was going to win back at Karaiskaki, and they did, but only 1-0 and Anorthosis became the first Cyprus club into the CL! And when they got there, it was not a "happy to be here" scenario. They hung tough right there with PAO, Inter and Werder Bremen, and though they finished last, it was not by much. So after all this, a repeat on the homefront would be no problem, right? Not so, as both Omonoia and APOEL overtook them, and Anorthosis finished a disappointing 3rd. But we will still see them in Europe this year in the successor to the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Europa League. More bad news, manager Timur Ketsbaia did not survive the 3rd place finish. So it was a tale of 2 seasons for the club originally from Famagusta. Join me tomorrow for part 2, as we look back on the season APOEL had.

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