Cypriot clubs APOEL FC, and Anorthosis managed to advance to the next stage of the Europa League qualifiers. APOEL achieved a 2-1 win against Senitsa while Anorthosis took the lead from Levadia Talinn managing a 3-1 victory.
APOEL welcomed Senitsa in Nicosia for the first leg of the 2nd round of Europa League qualifiers. It’s safe to say that APOEL was the superior team throughout the game.
APOEL showed how much they wanted the win, as the entire first half was played in Senitsa’s half with APOEL pressuring for an early goal. APOEL delivered several decent balls into the Senitsa box, but it took until the 33rd minute for someone to get a touch in for goal. That man was Ailton Almeida, who received the header from a great Benachour cross to make it 1-0. Seven minutes later APOEL doubled their tally with Alexandrou striking a lose ball after the goalkeeper saved a Morais shot.
In the second half, against all odds, Senitsa came close to a goal in the opening seconds. Luckily for APOEL the ball hit the post. APOEL responded immediately with a Manduca shot from distance that deflected off a defender. Ailton came close a couple of times after that but the scored remained at 2-0 for APOEL.
It was raining chances for APOEL who were constantly threatening for a third goal, but the ball just wouldn’t go in. Ivan Jovanovic decided it was time to make some substitutions. It’s worth mentioning that when Stathis Aloneftis came on, he was welcomed to a standing ovation by the APOEL crowd.
Anorthosis travelled to Estonia for their first Europa League game of the season. Their opponent was Levadia Tallinn. Anorthosis went into the game determined to get an early goal. They had the chances, but Levadia was hanging in well.
It looked set to be 0-0 at half time until a penalty was given on the 44th minute for a handball in the area. Spadacio stepped up to take it and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to make it 0-1 at the break.
It only took 10 minutes in the second half for Anorthosis to get a second, this time with Laborde. Okkas did brilliantly to steal the ball from Levadia’s defence and passed to Laborde who scored from a very tight angle- through the goalkeepers legs. Anorthosis kept pressuring for a third to finish off the game and it came seven minutes later as Laban sent a lovely ball to Calvo which was met by an equally cool finish from him to make it 0-3.
After that, Anorthosis dropped down a gear and used all their substitutions. This resulted in Anorthosis playing a bit sloppy and they conceded a goal on the 82nd minute, Morozof making it 1-3 from a corner ball.
So Anorthosis will meet Levadia in Larnaca next week with a strong advantage that should see them through to the third round of Europa League.