Cypriot club APOEL Nicosia has moved top of Group G in the European Champions League following an impressive 1-1 away draw to Ukrainian power club Shakhtar Donetsk.
APOEL, who defeated Zenit St Petersburg on Matchday One, now have four points from two games, one clear of Zenit and Porto. On Wednesday in Donetsk, APOEL took a surprise lead against the run of play when striker Ivan Trickovski stunned the home side by finishing off a rare counter attack in the 61st minute. Shakhtar, who missed a hatful of chances throughout the game, were level within three minutes when Jadson smashed the ball into the net after taking advantage of a poor clearance.
Shakhtar came into the game full of confidence and pinned APOEL in their own half. However, Mircea Lucescu’s side struggled to break down a well-organised Cypriot defence although they went close to opening the scoring five minutes before the break. Luiz Adriano’s strike from the edge of the area was heading goalwards but was deflected over the bar by a defender following a low cross from Dario Srna. Moments earlier Henrik Mkhitaryan was denied by visiting keeper Dionisios Chiotis when the Armenian midfielder raced into the area but shot weakly after Luiz Adriano’s pull back. A sleepy first half turned into an entertaining affair after the interval with APOEL spicing things up.
The visitors, who rarely troubled a home defence missing suspended key central defenders Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Yaroslav Rakytskiy after both were sent off in the Ukrainiane side’s opening 2-1 defeat at Porto, suddenly broke the deadlock. Trickovski exchanged passes with Constantinos Charalambides, who came off the bench after just three minutes to replace the injured Gustavo Manduca, squeezed into the box and slotted a low shot into the far corner of the net. APOEL’s joy was short-lived though with Brazilian Jadson struck the equaliser after compatriot Willian broke down the right and sent a low deflected cross into the area.