Thanks to two goals by Roberto Kolaouti in the delays of the match, Anorthosis prevailed 3-1 against Omonia at "Antonis Papadopoulos" in the premiere of the new league.Jason Dimitriou, as if he had been ready for a long time, opened the scoring for Anorthosis in the 62nd minute with an excellent goal in his first appearance after a serious injury that left him out of action for seven months, with Lukas Gikiewicz temporarily equalizing for them. "Greens" in 86 '.
In the delays, Kolaouti took action, who with two goals in 94 'and 97' gave the victory to his team.
How they lined up
With several surprises in the defensive quartet, Anorthosis was joined by Jorge Costa, who chose Valverde at the end, Adic and Mako in the center of the defense, Dimitriou on the right and Abraham on the left. Ohio and Alexa were the two suspension agents, with Garcia on the axis and Okka and Fofana in the wings composing the trio behind the promoted Kolaouti.
Outside the Portuguese coach's plans were the punished from last season Galamaz and the injured Sielis, Maragos and Pavisevic.
Toni Savevski, for his part, chose Moreira under the crossbar, with Andrade and Alabi at the stoppers and Tervera and Scaramocchino at right and left in defense respectively. Soares, Leandro and Assis formed the trio in the midfield, with Ephraim and Platini flanking from the wings Sembri who was at the top of the "green" attack.
The Skopje coach did not have to face any problems.
Main Part
Anorthosis was better throughout the first part. The hosts entered the game well and managed only in the 4th minute to make the first threatening condition with Kolaouti. The "blue and whites" of Famagusta circulated the ball better than their opponent, which had difficulty creating and creating situations in front of Valverd's frames.
Anorthosis climbed even higher after the end of the first 20 minutes, managing to take control of the midfield. He created three other opportunities with Fofana and Okka in the same minute (22 ') and with Kolaouti in the 30', mainly carried away by the rise of Garcia and Fofana.
In the meantime, the "greens" had made their first dangerous "visit" to the opponent's area, with Ephraim not catching the ball after a cross by Platini in 26 '. In general, however, the development of Omonia was slow and unimaginative, with the exception of some flashes.
Part two
Omonia made a change that brought about a reshuffle in their replay, with Gikiewicz replacing Ephraim and taking a position at the top of the attack, with Platini moving to the right and Skembri to the left. The guests entered the replay a bit more appetizing in its first minutes, but Anorthosis was the one who was happy to open the score thanks to an excellent goal by Jason Dimitriou in 62 '.
The game was worse in quality compared to the first half mainly due to the several breaks in his first period, which did not allow him to pick up the pace. Savevski's players started to push higher and make it difficult for Anorthosis to develop, while they found a very good opportunity to bring the game to 74 'with Valverd repelling impressively.
In the 81st minute, it was the turn of the newcomer Taylor to put Valverd in a difficult position, with the Frenchman, however, responding positively again, repelling in a corner. A minute later, Fofana delayed the counterattack and failed to take advantage of the fact that he found himself in a one-on-one with Thevera, with Gikiewicz coming in at 86 'and sending the ball into Valverd's net, bringing the game to a close.
The many breaks resulted in an 11-minute hint for delays, with Roberto Colaouti taking action with two of his own goals in the 94th and 97th minutes after a cross by Grigalashvili and an error by Alabi, respectively, giving his team a three-pointer.
THIS IS HOW WE SAW IT: Anorthosis was better for most of the match and created more opportunities than Omonia, which with the exception of some glimmers seemed inferior to its opponent. In general, the dominance of the hosts is considered fair.
THE PHASE: A better return after seven months of absence could not have been imagined by Jason Dimitriou, who in the 62nd minute caught an excellent shot that ended up in Moreira's net after first hitting the crossbar of his home.
LIKED: Jason Dimitriou returned to the field after a seven-month absence making his debut with the Anorthosis jersey and was to be the player who opened the scoring for his team with an excellent goal. The 26-year-old ace showed, at the same time, that despite his long absence, he can offer a lot to both his new team and the National Team of Cyprus in view of the September matches for the World Cup qualifiers.
DID NOT LIKE: Jose Tervera faced several problems at the right end of Omonia's defense, while in several cases he had slow returns which allowed Anorthosis players to find places in the opponent's defense.
MVP: Roberto Colaouti scored twice in the delays of the match and gave his team its first three points in the new season.
THE WHISTLE: The refereeing of Giannis Anastasiou was quite good. The referee of the match was right in the phase of 31 'when he punished Assis with a yellow card for theater after falling inside the area of Anorthosis and in general he did quite well in the derby.
STAGE: Antonis Papadopoulos
REFEREE: Giannis Anastasiou
FIRST ASSISTANT: Athinodoros Ioannou
SECOND ASSISTANT: Charalambos Georgiou
4th REFEREE: Thomas Mouskos
OBSERVER: Christos Skapoullis
COMPOSITIONS
Recovery (Jorge Costa): Valverd, Dimitriou, Adic, Makos, Abraham, Alexa, Ohio, Garcia, Okkas (Grigalashvili), Fofana (90 + 7 'Calvo), Kolaouti (90 + 9' Ben Susian).
Bench: Konstantinou, Zorze, Oikonomou, Makris, Loizidis, Andreou, Theodorou.
Concord (Tony Savevski): Moreira, Tervera, Andrade, Alabi, Scaramocchino, Soares (78 'Taylor), Leandro, Assis, Ephraim (46' Gikiewicz), Platini, Skembri.
Bench: Brooks, Serfa, Aguirre, Margassa, Kyriakou.
SCORER: Dimitriou (62 '), Kolaouti (90 + 4', 90 + 7 ') / Gikievic (86')
YELLOW: Kolaouti, Alexa, Adic, Garcia, Calvo / Assis, Leandro, Tervera
NEXT MATCH (2nd): Anorthosis - Apollon / Omonia - ENP
* Jorge Costa made his official debut on the Anorthosis bench, while Jason Dimitriou made his first appearance for the team, returning to action after a seven-month absence (he was injured in AEK's game against Ayia Napa on 26/1). Debut also for Ben Soussian, who came on as a substitute for Kolaouti.
* Bensan Laban was on the stands to watch the premiere of his former team in the new league. From the official of the stadium, the coach of the Union (next opponent of Omonia), Sasa Jovanovic, also saw the game.
* It was necessary to replace Ephraim by Gikiewicz after the halftime break, due to the injury of the Cypriot international extreme striker.
* The game was stopped for about four minutes, two minutes after the start of the second half, due to the lighting of flares and sparklers from the podium of the organized fans of Anorthosis, which made the atmosphere inside the stadium suffocating.
Source: protathlima.com