Euro2004 Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 APOEL's quest to make it to the Champions League again has already started. They will play a qualifying game which we'd expect them to win, against opposition from Albania for instance. Lowly leagues. If APOEL qualify they'll make it to the Champions League Play Off Round. If they win that they'll be in the group stages, if they lose they'll be in the Europa League 1st round (game before the group stage). So the minimum aim must be to at least win the 3rd qualifying round in order to be guaranteed some sort of first team football. This is relevant now because 10 teams will be seeded in the qualifying round, and APOEL are currently in the 8th seed position. For APOEL to remain in a seeded position they need 3 "underdogs" from the Belgium, Slovakian, Austrian, Bulgarian and Czech leagues to win the title. Bulgaria: APOEL want Litex Lovech to win the league, t Litex Lovech 62 points Levski 54 points. 6 points clear of Levski with 5 games left to play. On the 8/5/11 they travel to Levski! Go Litex! :D Slovakia: Senica 55 pts Sl. Bratislava 53 pts Zilina 50 pts with 5 games left to play. Today (4/5/11) Senica welcome Bratislava! Go Senica!! Czech Rep APOEL want Victoria Plzen to win the league. Victoria Plzen 60 pts Sparta Prague 56 pts with 4 games left to play Austria: APOEL want Sturm Graz to win the league. Sturm Graz 55 pts Austria Wien 51 pts Salzburg 50 pts with 5 games left to play Belgium: APOEL want Genk to win the league. Genk 44 pts Liege 41 pts Anderlecht 41 pts There are 4 games to play in a play-off system, so Genk still have Anderlecht and Liege at home. This could go anywhere. So at the moment every team that APOEL wants to win the league is top of the league. At least 3 of those 5 need to go on to win their leagues. Will be fun to have a team in every division to follow, for the good of Cypriot football :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 Unfortunately Senica lost 1-2 at home to Bratislava. They were winning but the visitors levelled and then grabbed an 87th min winner. Not good! :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted May 21, 2011 Author Share Posted May 21, 2011 3 of the 5 underdogs won the 5 underdogs - Genk, Litex and Plzen - won their leagues, so APOEL will be among the seeded teams! :gr: They'll start in the 3rd qualifying round where theoretically they'll play a very weak team. They'll then go to the 4th and final round before the CL group stages where they'll meet a decent, but unseeded, side. In other words APOEL could meet teams like Litex Lovech rather than the likes of Copenhagen. So APOEL have a fantastic chance of making the CL now. :gr: Anorthosis will also be seeded in the 4th round of the Europa League, just one round before the group stages. So we are fantastically placed to see 2 Cypriot teams in the group stages of these two major european competitions for the first time ever! :tup: Unfortunately Omonia are not in the seeds so they'll be up against stronger opposition and the odds will be stacked against them. They could end up drawing someone like Liverpool or Villarreal, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Well APOEL's hopes of reaching the CL certainly can be achieved. They'll start in the 2nd qualifying round and need to through 3 rounds in total to be in the CL group stage. In the 2nd round APOEL will play one of the following: Dacia Chisinau (Moldova) Pyunik Yerevan (Armenia) FK Borac Banja Luka (Bosnia) Mogren Budva (Montenegro) Skonto Riga (Latvia) FC Fehérvár (Hungary) Bangor City (Wales) HB Torshavn (Faroe Islands) Linfield (N.Ireland) Tobol Kustanai (Kazakhstan) F91 Dudelange (Luxemborg) or FC Santa Coloma (Andorra) NFlora Tallinn (Estonia) Breidablik (Iceland) Valletta FC (Malta) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 APOEL drew Albanian squad KS Skenderbeu with their first game being away. Good luck to the Cyprus champions! :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted July 14, 2011 Share Posted July 14, 2011 Skenderbeu - APOEL 0-2!!! (Nuno Morais 52', Gustavo Manduca 56') :tup: The champions of Cyprus defeated Skenderbeu 2-0 away and are heavily favoured to advance. :) Btw, Skenderbeu represent Korytsa in N. Epirus. I don't know if there was any support for APOEL among the local Greeks. Does anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 Today's CL draw pits - hopefully - APOEL against the winners of the encounter between Slovan Bratislava (SVK) and Tobol Kostanay (KAZ). The first leg in Slovakia ended in favour of Slovan 2-0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 2nd leg: 69' APOEL - Skenderbeu 2-0 Barring the unforseeable, APOEL will play Slovan Bratislava in the next round as the Slovaks drew 1-1 in Kazakhstan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 FT: APOEL - Skenderbeu 4-0! :) Next stop: Bratislava! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 APOEL - Slovan 0-0 Things look difficult for the yellow-blues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted July 27, 2011 Author Share Posted July 27, 2011 APOEL - Slovan 0-0 Things look difficult for the yellow-blues! Not really. I saw the game, APOEL had 69% possession and should have won. They can certainly win out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 10 mins in to the second leg, it's still 0-0 on agg. This is a fairly even game with APOEL trying to play possession football while Slovan are trying to search for an early ball forward to expose APOEL's high defensive line. Slovan have yet to create anything but they look dangerous because it only takes one of those early balls to get past the centre-backs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 33 mins in now, APOEL dominating possession but can't find that quality final ball to create a clear cut opening. Slovan have been pinned back but have been solid. The Slovan fans are chanting something about Cyprus and Turkey and there's a big Cypriot contingent there so i hope there isn't trouble tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 HALF TIME: 0-0. A high tempo and stretched opening 25 mins was contrasted by a technical passing affair for the rest of the half. APOEL had 65% possession but much like the first leg they couldn't find a way through this well organised Slovan defence. In Cyprus APOEL were creating openings, today though they've been limited to a few half chances. Having said that Slovan were running like mad to close them down and their tempo did drop in the last 20 mins of the half so hopefully they tire more and APOEL can capitalise. I think the first goal will win this tie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GS1905 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 APOEL took the lead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 Yes APOEL lead now and Slovan have since gone down to 10 men so APOEL are cruising towards the next round now. And my bets are looking good tonight :D I have: APOEL draw no bet in an accumulator with Trabzonspor +1 Plzen vs Rosenborg over 2.5 goals Partizan draw no bet Rubin Kazan draw no bet and Rnagers draw no bet (they drew) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 APEOL hit the post on 88 mins and missed an open goal on 91 mins after a shot was saved into the path of both Solari and Bidis, with an empty net in front of them. APOEL are cruising to a win and into the next round though! :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 Former AEK man Gustavo Manduca added an injury time 2nd goal after Solari hit the post again to give APOEL a 0-2 win! APOEL are through with 68% possession and they've yet to concede a goal in qualifying in the 4 games they've played! :tup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Finally, a decent Greek club in the Champions League!* :) *Even if they represent the Republic of Cyprus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irlandos Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 If only Anorthosis can also follow suit and pull a miracle in Skopje... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 If only Anorthosis can also follow suit and pull a miracle in Skopje... :) Let's keep our fingers crossed.I think now APOEL's possible opponents are Viktoria Plzen (Czech champions) BATE Borisov (Belarussian champs) Maccabi Haifa (Israeli champs) Copenhagen (Danish champs) and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatian champs) One of the first 3 please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 3, 2011 Author Share Posted August 3, 2011 Scrap that last post, APOEL are seeded in the champion's draw so the possible opponents are: Wisla Krakow (Poland) Sturm Graz (Austria) Genk (Belgium) Plzen (Czech) Malmo (Swedish) Genk and Wisla are the ones to avoid imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GS1905 Posted August 3, 2011 Share Posted August 3, 2011 Having checked the squad of APOEL, I think it's fair to say they can compete with PAO, AEK, Aris and PAOK, were they in the A' Ethniki... Ailton, Bidi, Poursaitidi, Helio, Trickovic and Manduca are all very good players who can make the cut at the teams I listed above easily... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Euro2004 Posted August 4, 2011 Author Share Posted August 4, 2011 Definitely mate, no doubt about it. Also Cypriot teams tend to play as a team, in Greece sometimes the teams tend to look like a group of individuals at times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omonoia9 Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 APOEL can probably handle any of those teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.