Important wins for Omonoia and Paralimni

CYPRIOT FIRST DIVISION - MATCHDAY 19

Omonoia wrapped up Matchday 19 with a decisive 2:0 victory over last placed Ermis Aradippou to keep their hopes alive for finishing in sixth. Earlier on Sunday, Salamina and Doxa Katokopias shared a point in their 1:1 draw, while Paralimni earned a big 2:1 win over Alki Oroklinis.

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Salamina visited the Makareio stadio in Nicosia to face Doxa with Savvas Poursaitidis’ team looking for the points that would hold their grip in the first group. In the 23rd minute, Kingsley Onuegbu gave Salamina the lead after an individual effort and finish that Armin Gremsl was unable to stop. Thiago almost doubled Salamina’s lead before halftime, however Gremsl denied his free kick. Doxa improved in the second half and found the equalizer with a header from Alfonso Artabe in the 58th minute from a corner kick. After Doxa’s goal, both teams failed to pose a threat as the game finished in a 1:1 draw without any late drama. Salamina did not lose, but Omonoia are now a close four points behind while Doxa managed to get an important point in their efforts to stay clear of any relegation trouble.

Enosis Neon Paralimni visited the Ammochostos stadium in Larnaca to face Alki Oroklini, determined to get a win against an important competitor in the battle to avoid relegation. It took only five minutes and Minas Antoniou (on loan from APOEL), opened the scoring for the visitors after heading home a ball from Andreas Kyriakou. A minute later, another winter transfer struck again for Paralimni. Shoval Gozlan took advantage of a poor back pass towards Urko Pardo and he made no mistake to double his team’s lead. Alki recovered from the early shock and Franco Flores touched the goal in the 17th minute, but Boris Klaiman leaped to deny the headed effort. Moments before halftime, it was Paralimni’s turn to touch the goal as a long shot from Irakli Maisuradze forced Pardo to a big save.

Alki looked to get back into the game in the second half and Matija Spoljaric had a good long effort in the 55th minute, but Klaiman was up to the task and denied him a goal. Two minutes later, Lorenzo Riera saw a second yellow card leaving Paralimni with ten players for the rest of the game. Alki took advantage of this and closed Paralimni in their end of the pitch, creating some good chances to salvage a point from the game. In the 85th minute, Klaiman was there once again to deny El Hedi Belameiri and in the 91st minute, Belameiri shot from point blank as Klaiman came up with a big save once again. Spoljaric then won a penalty a minute later and successfully converted it himself, however it was too little too late and the final scoreline remained at 2:1. It is an important win for Paralimni, who are now ninth with the same number of points as Alki, however Pafos sit just two points behind them.

Ermis hosted Omonoia at the Ammochostos stadium looking to surprise the Prasinoi and try to inspire some hope of avoiding relegation. The visitors, though, did not give such a chance and they opened the scoring in the 38th minute. Franjo Prce sent a long ball from the left side and youngster Marinos Tzionis with a beautiful header beat Giannis Arabatzis. The game moved in a slow pace but Omonoia once again found the back of the net in the 65th minute. A smart passing game from Giannis Anastasiou’s players set up Jordi Gomez in a perfect spot for his left foot and it was 2:0 for Omonoia. The visitors controlled the game comfortably and in the 89th minute, Sasa Zivec almost scored a third, however Arabatzis impressively denied his deflected shot. With the win, Omonoia inched closer to sixth placed Salamina and they will chase their hopes of grabbing a spot in the first group. Ermis on the other hand, are watching their hopes of safety fade away as they are stuck at the bottom of the table.

by Marios Antoniou

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