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Having faced Anorthosi and Omonoia already in the league, as well as focussing on our Champion’s League debut, the league in Cyprus seems to be the last thing on everyone’s mind, as the results below show:

Apart from a slight scare at Alki, I’m struggling to see us dropping points in the league this season so far, there is such a vast difference in quality between a team like APOEL and the also-rans at the middle and bottom of the table.

We began the month with a fantastic win at Ermis. Ailton continues his scintillating from for the club with a hat-trick in the game, which is increasingly making me wonder why I bough Marlon Harewood, but I suppose it can’t hurt to have cover.

Next in the league we faced Alki, who pushed us very hard all the way through at the GSP, but Charalabidis was on hand to provide the 48th minute strike which was all we needed to get three points.

In anticipation of the Porto game I rested a few players for the AEL game, but it clearly didn’t have an impact as Marlon Harewood, who is still far to good for this league, was on hand to provide a brace before Ailton came off the bench to seal a brilliant win.

Finally we faced Porto in the Champion’s League, I was nervous following their 5-1 win over CSKA, but my defensive tactics seemed to be holding until Hulk (who else?) broke the deadlock, and after that they remained on the front foot, however they only sealed the win on the 89th minute thanks to Eduardo Vargas’ strike. Fortunately Man City were held in Moscow so we remain second by two points, but we need to aim to get something when CSKA visit if we want to ensure we remain there.

League table:

Champion’s League table:

Thanks for reading, I look forward to your comments and I hope you enjoy the post!

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So, our first ever game in the Champion’s League saw us travel to the Etihad stadium to take on Man City, we were massive underdogs and most pundits would probably see this as a case of us keeping the scoreline respectable rather than trying to get anything out of the game and I would be inclined to agree.

Looking at the line-ups neither team were pulling any punches, as I switched from my usual 4-2-3-1 to a more defensive 4-1-4-1, and Man City named a very strong starting XI as they were clearly gunning for the points.

So, I guess you want to see what kind of goalfest this turned into don’t you?

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Well, after telling you about our fairytale qualification for the Champion’s League, there was still a domestic season to get through, as well as a transfer window to get through, so that will be the focus of this post.

Transfers:

So, a relatively quiet transfer window for us as I tried to strike the balance between players that will better the squad domestically without blowing our financial situation out of the water. As a result, it was mostly wheeling and dealing despite our massive (for Cyprus) budget of £1.5M but I think we have really improved the squad.

Vangelis Moras

The Greek international was the first man on my hitlist to bring in, and despite a relatively large wage he is easily the best center back in the division. Combined with his defensive ability he also has good jumping and heading which makes him yet another threat up front from our improving set-piece play.

Marco Materazzi

Despite being a center back, I brought him in for his attacking ability. He has brilliant heading and jumping, as well as a mean left-footed penalty, as you saw against HJK, so he provides a massive threat in the box for our corners and if anyone gets floored he is definitely the man I would trust to step up and slot it.

Marlon Harewood

A cheeky £200K bid saw us grab the former Blackpool man who finds his way into the GSL Stadium, he is a great striker for the league but unfortunately Ailton’s brilliant form has kept him on the bench, still, not a bad option to have and his strength and stamina definitely helps to create gaps in the defence for us to exploit late on in a match.

Mark Kerr

The former Aberdeen man has played less than 10 games for Tripolis, and despite the fact he wasn’t transfer listed, we met his value of £150K which they were happy enough to accept and we have managed to gain another brilliant defensive minded midfielder to give us a few extra tackles in front of the defence, as well as this he has brilliant mental attributes which mean he can lead the squad for 90 minutes, sort of a poor man’s Scottish Scott Parker…

Nicolas Puydebois

With Prado banned for the season, (don’t know why) and Chiotis unable to hold onto a cross, we needed a new ‘keeper. The former Lyon man was the safest pair of hands going and for relatively low wages I snapped him up and he has made the #1 jersey his own so far.

So, onto results now…

Having covered the Champion’s League, here’s how we’ve done in the A Division:

Well, a tough start. Deryneia almost caused an upset as we had to come back from behind, but after netting the equaliser we completely dominated, and I have noticed a real disparity between the top teams and the rest. We then faced the two title challengers, but Anorthosi failed to caused a real challenge at home, however there was more of a fight with Omonoia who got two red cards in a very ill-tempered game before we slotted home a late winner to seal three points against the team that many would say are the biggest contenders for the title, on their turf.

I could go into explaining the next win a bit more, but I’ll just put up this screenie to show just how big a gap there is between the teams at the bottom of the division and the little cartel of three (Anorthosi, Omonoia and APOEL) that pretty much always finish in the top three:

Thanks very much for reading!

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Yes, incredibly we have done it!

Admittedly we dodged some bullets along the way, but we have had a fairytale journey to the Champion’s League, beginning in the middle of July in Yerezan, and with our final qualifier played in front of the home fans at GSL at the end of the August, it has been a wonderful journey so far:

Second Round:

So, for the first round we were drawn against Pyunik of Armenia, and a stunning game by Ailton in the first leg saw us out of sight, and Manduca’s brace just added further emphasis to our superiority. However, the victory was marred by an injury to Manduca, as he was out for 7 weeks with a torn calf. At home we again dominated, and a fine game by the midfielders saw us run out 4-0 winners but in truth Pyunik never had a chance after the first leg.

Third Round:

Our first leg away in Slovenia turned out to be much more of a challenge than I expected as we took on Slovan Bratislava. However, despite being equal in odds Slovan appeared to disagree, and tried to break all of my players, as seen in the card count, however a moment of magic between my Brazilians Marcinho and Ailton saw us grab a vital away goal and the first leg win.

Five minutes of pure genius from Marcinho ensured we were in the driving seat after 15 minutes, and despite not scoring again we were well on top and confidently secured our spot in the Champion’s Playoff, which also ensured that at the very worst we would qualify for the Europa League, which in my mind is a brilliant achievement.

Champion’s Playoff:

Going into the draw, I knew we had to avoid FC Copenhagen, the best team in the draw, it would also be good to avoid NK Dinamo of Croatia, an whilst I reckoned HJK and Rangers were beatable, they would be hard games. The best draw would have been Maribor, Zestaponi and BATE, of Slovenia, Georgia and Belarus, as I was almost certain we could get comfortable victories over any of them.

In the end, however, we were drawn against…

HJK!

Not the worst draw, but it would certainly be tough taking on Litmanen’s men, with the first leg in Helsinki, I knew we had to come away with at least a draw to have a good chance at progression:

Wow, not just a win, but two away goals too! I was absolutely stunned with the way we played, as we just dominated them all over the pitch, unfortunately the win came at a price, as Poursaitidis and Jahic are banned for the next leg, but I think it would be hard for HJK to win it by two goals which they would need to do, as my work to make the GSP stadium a fortress is paying off, as you’ll see in the next update.

After a tough league game between the ties I genuinely feared the worst as we looked a lot less sharp in this tie, but I had little to worry about as Ailton scored a cheeky volley and Puydebois was more than a match for a Litmanen-less HJK at the other end, successfully keeping a clean sheet to ensure our progress.

So, our draw for the Champion’s League group stage saw us against…

A very tough group.

I think we are going to have to aim to get maximum points from CSKA at home, whilst aiming to get draws from Porto and Man City, then maybe a point in Moscow too, but Russia is notoriously hard away ground, if we want to sneak third place. Although saying this, apart from Man City, this was one of the best draws for us, which just goes to show how much of a step up the Champion’s League is for small teams like us.

However, we live and move on, and I’m sure the £6.7M you get for qualifying, alongside prize money from any draws/wins we get and the gate money from the bigger matches will go a long way to making us more competitive next season…

Next time…

A full round up of August, including my league fixtures, and a very busy transfer window for APOEL as I attempt to build a squad capable of retaining the A League and therefore my shot at the Champion’s League.

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