The juniors made it their own (two goals by Loizou, one goal and one assist by Kakoullis) and with the 4-2 win over Antwerp, Omonia now has the first reason to qualify for the Europa League groups.
Relieved of the stress due to the secured place in a European group, but also with the “dowry” of the serious lead she took in the first match, our champion will try in the match on Thursday (26/8, 22:00) at “Bosuilstadion” to complete the surprise,… throw the Belgians in the Conference and take a place in the 2nd class event.
And if he succeeds, he will continue the «positive” series “he has built in terms of European opponents in the first matches of which he wins by two goals.
This with Antwerp was the sixth time in a row in which Omonia wins the first match of a European battle with a difference of two goals. And although in the first two she accepted the reversal in the replay and lost the qualification, in the next three series she managed to defend her lead and now she is seeking to get the fourth consecutive qualification after a victory with two goals difference.
The first time was in the first round of the Champions Cup of the 1982/83 season, when they beat Helsinki 2-0 in Makareio, but in Finland they lost 3-0 and were eliminated, while something similar happened in the 1998/99 season, for second round of the UEFA Cup, when he defeated Rapid Vienna 3-1 in Makareio and lost 2-0 to Austria, accepting the exclusion thanks to the away goal of the Viennese in Nicosia.
The first qualifier after a two-goal victory in the first game came in the 2007/08 season, against Rudar for the first qualifier of the UEFA Cup, as the 2-0 victory in the GSP was followed by a double with the same score in Montenegro. In a similar way (and in the same phase) came the second, the very next season (2008/09), against Milan, with 2-0 victories in GSP and 2-1 in Skopje. The third time was in 2014/15, for the second qualifying round of the Europa League, where for the first time it prevailed with two goals difference in the first away game. After the 2-0 double against Buduνοnost in Montenegro, he qualified with a white tie in the GSP.
Of course, the degree of difficulty in defending the lead is higher this time compared to the matches with Rudar, Milan and Buduνοnost, but we are also talking about a Omonia clearly better than in those of the season, which in fact has begun to build DNA European DNA.
