AEL win Limassol derby
CYPRIOT 1st DIVISION - MATCHDAY 7
AEL won the Limassol derby in the Cypriot First Division, earning a tough 2-1 victory against Apollon.
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The Limassol derby always has its own unique character between rivals AEL and Apollon in Cyprus’s largest coastal town, especially given that both teams have had their ups and downs so far in the campaign.
Sasa Markovic initially handed Apollon the lead in the 37th minute, but Ivan Carlos equalized five minutes later. The winner for AEL arrived in the 78th minute via a Ruben Jurado penalty.
With the win, AEL jumped to fourth in the table alongside Anorthosis and Ethnikos Achnas, and they do have games in hand against both sides. Apollon is behind in ninth in what looks to be one of the toughest seasons in Cypriot First Division history.
THE MATCH
Starting on the front foot, Apollon created plenty of chances in the early stages and they thought they had opened the scoring, but Danny Carr’s goal was ruled out for offside in the 19th minute.
Despite the pressure the danger moved to the other side of the pitch in the 28th minute as Gevorg Ghazaryan found Ruben Jurado, but Attila Szalai with a perfectly timed block stopped his effort. The breakthrough came in the 37th minute, as Sasa Markovic dribbled and released a shot which was deflected to beat Vozinha.
The goal did not remained long unanswered as five minutes later it was all square again. Ivan Carlos took the long free kick, the ball hit Carr and went into the net while Joel Mall was helpless. AEL got to the break level at 1-1 despite that they spent most of the time behind the ball.
10 minutes after half time, Apollon had a golden opportunity to take the lead, as Adrian Sardinero under pressure failed to score from point blank range. AEL held their ground and struck again in the 78th minute. Manuel Torres broke the offside trap, and Joel Mall brought him down before scoring. Jurado took the penalty kick, subsequently beating Mall and completing AEL’s comeback.
Apollon (Sofronis Avgousti): Joel Mall (GK), Emilio Nsue, Attila Szalai, Hector Yuste, Diego Aguirre, Roger M’Pinda (Esteban Sacchetti), Sasa Markovic, Giannis Gianniotas (Fotis Papoulis), Adrian Sardinero, Serge Gakpe (Facundo Pereyra), Danny Carr
AEL (Dusan Kerkez): Vozinha (GK), Andre Teixeira, Boris Godal (Momcilo Raso), Jon Gaztanaga, Minas Antoniou, Christos Wheeler, Slobodan Medojevic, Davor Zdravkovski, Gevorg Ghazaryan, Ivan Carlos (Manuel Torres), Ryan Mmaee (Ruben Jurado)
HIGHLIGHTS
