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Cyprus League is better?


Irlandos

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Former AEK goalkeeper, Dionysis Chitis, has claimed that the Cypriot League is better than the Greek Superleague.

Ten years ago that would've been a laughable statement but, with the recent successes of Cypriot football, is it possible that Chiotis is right?

Which league is better in your opinion?

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Well i accidently clicked "cypriot" but i meant "they are about even" so please take that into consideration.

Basically if the leagues merged i think Olympiakos would probably win it because they have the best attacking talent. PAOK in my opinion would probably nick 2nd spot this season. However then it would be APOEL, PAO, Omonia, AEK Larnaca, Anorthosis, AEK Athens, Aris, AEL Limassol.

So the top of the division would be very mixed.

However where the Cypriot league would excell would be in cup competitions. Something i've discussed with other members here many times before is that to win a league you need to be able to break down stubborn, lesser team consistently. Olympiakos would have the ability to break lesser team down more consistently than APOEL for instance because they have better attacking talent. In a cup competition, like in Europe, where you play teams stronger than yourself you need to have a solid defence because you aren't going to go to Porto for example and out-attack them.

So in terms of a knock out competition in Europe i would consider the chances of success to be as follows:

PAOK

APOEL

Olympiakos

Aris

Omonia

AEK Larnaca

Panathinaikos

AEK Athens

Anorthosis

Again pretty mixed. So for me it's a case of Greek league having more individual talent, but Cypriot league having better tactics, professionalism, mentality and heart.

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I agree that over all the Greek league has better players but the brand of football played by the top Cypriot teams plus their preparation and work ethic cannot be matched by the mainland clubs.

definitely!

People do not realise how important the ability to defend is. I'm a member of quite a few sports forums like this one so i'm not sure where i read this, perhaps it was here, but someone once made a comment that football is the only sport where the art of defending is undermined. In boxing, Floyd Mayweather, Pernell Whitaker, Bernard Hopkins, etc, are/were extraodinary defensive fighters and they get respect. In Tennis, Nadal, Hewitt, Murray are defensive players and they were/are all world class and get respect. In football, Ketsbaia goes unbeaten without conceding a goal and he's sacked for being too defensive :LOL: In Cyprus this problem doesn't exist. The fans are a bit more patient and they realise that winning is foremost and playing good football comes secondary.

If anyone watches the EPL here they will be fully aware of the mini crisis Arsenal and Tottenham are going through, yet to win a league game. Both teams have excellent attacking talent, but by EPL standards lack defensive solidity. Look what happened when they tried to play superior teams in Man Utd. Tottenham lost 3-0 (trying to play a defensive game despite only having top quality attacking players) and today lost 1-5 at home to Man City. While Arsenal tried to attack Man Utd and lost 8-2. We're talking about an Arsenal team that had players like Van Persie, Arshavin, Walcott and a Tottenham team with players like Bale, Van Der Vaart, Modric, Lennon, etc. The reason for this is that you cannot out-attack a team with superior attacking prowess. It's the same in other sports. Mayweather cannot have a toe-to-toe brawl against Mosley, or in his up and coming fight against Ortiz, because he will end up on the floor. He beats everyone because if you don't get hit, you can't get hurt. Cypriot teams realise this. APOEL are both equipped to break teams down in Cyprus, but are also capable/willing of working their socks off and being ultra defensive when necessary. In Greece this philosophy is not adopted. So it is mentality, tactics, preparation and attitude which is superior in Cyprus, so they over achieve while Greek teams under achieve.

Let's consider Olympiakos' CL group as an example. Arsenal are a shambles at the moment and a weaker Pot 1 team, this Marseille team is weaker than the Bordeaux team that Olympiakos competed with 2 years ago, and while Dortmund are very good they are inexperienced and Greek teams have a good record against German teams. So it's not a group they should fear. Yes it's difficult, but so was the group consisting of Real Madrid, Lazio and Werder Bremen. Yet that team was defensively solid under Lemonis and they managed it. The other Olympiakos team which did well in Europe was Bajevic's, which was also defensively solid. Valverde's Olympiakos is incapable of playing defensively because the mentality is defeatest (Nikopolidis was saying Olympiakos have no chance), there is no work ethic (they don't know how to or simply refuse to press, track runners, ete) and I vitually guarantee they get hammered in England and Germany as a result. Whereas when APOEL and Anorthosis were in the CL they said "we're going to be organised, press like our lives depend on it and generally give you a war. Come and break us down", and as a result both were competitive and achieved some excellent results (both beat Olympiakos, Ano beat PAO, drew with Werder twice, and drew with Inter, while APOEL drew twice with Atletico and drew at Stamford Bridge!). If Olympiakos achieved some of those results they'd be hailed as great European nights

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About even I'd say. The year Anorthosis beat Olympiakos and Omonoia beat AEK proved that the big boys in Cyprus can play with the big boys in Greece

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  • 2 weeks later...

What we are all saying here is profound! :o

A couple of years back, no one would even think to compare the two leagues!

So the question is: Has the Greek League dropped dramatically, the Cypriot League risen dramatically or have they met somewhere in the middle? :huh:

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What we are all saying here is profound!  :o

A couple of years back, no one would even think to compare the two leagues!

So the question is: Has the Greek League dropped dramatically, the Cypriot League risen dramatically or have they met somewhere in the middle?  :huh:

It's a bit of both. Personally I believe that the mid-range teams in both leagues improved considerably but the top Greek teams have weakened while the top Cypriot teams have strengthened

Kavala and Aris last season were much better than a few years ago when Panionios and Xanthi made the Europa Lge for example. PAOK have also strengthened considerably and I firmly believe that with one top class striker they'd have a chance of winning the league. In Cyprus AEK, Apollon, AEL, have also strengthened so that's made both leagues more competitive.

However the major difference is that in Cyprus the top 2 have strengthened, while in Greece the traditional top 3 have weakened considerably. Compare this AEK to the Ferrer's AEK. Compare this PAO to any PAO in the last 3-4 years. This Olympiakos team compared to Lemonis' team that made the last 16? Whereas the only team in Cyprus that has weakened comparitively is Anorthosis.

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