Olympiacos with Apollon Limassol as they overtake Slovan

Apollon Limassol put in a great display against Maccabi Haifa in Cyprus, winning 2-0 through goals from Ongeda and Kohl and coming close to a third goal in the 84th minute to set the game on fire but failed and failed to get into the move into the next round phase of the Champions League.

This means that they are on the road to Olympiakos in the playoffs of the Europa League on condition that the “Red-Whites” eliminate Slovan Bratislava on Thursday (11 August) and will also find themselves in the next phase of the Europa League again.

The first leg takes place on August 18 with Piraeus visiting, with the second leg a week later on August 25 in Karaiskakis. The games will be broadcast by COSMOTE TV.

The profile of Apollo Limassol

Last season was a dream for Apollon Limassol. The start might not have been similar as he was eliminated by Zilina in the Conference League qualifiers.

Essentially, this exclusion had a positive effect, so that Apollo was able to start the championship with a bang. He did great in the regular season as he built a gap to take first place in the playoffs. There he managed to secure the championship despite the belly he was making. The two games against Maccabi Haifa were the first official ones this year.

Apollon Lmesos’ coach is Alexander Zorniger. The 54-year-old caused a sensation during his time in Leipzig in the lower league and helped them jump into the 2nd Bundesliga until Ralf Rangnick took over his job. After being there as an assistant in 2009, he returned to Stuttgart in the summer of 2015 but, despite the optimism, failed miserably and was fired in November 2015.

His next job followed in May 2016 at Broadby, where he enjoyed his first successes at top division level. He stayed in Denmark until February 2019 after winning two consecutive runners-up places (though he ended up losing the league in 2018) and the 2018 Cup.

In 2021 he found a coaching home at Apollon Limassol, which he led to the first championship since 2006 and fourth place overall.

Some of our acquaintances from their days in the Greek stadiums are competing at the Apollon Limassol. Notably, Tsorniger’s team includes Haris Mavrias, Tasos Avlonitis, Nicholas Digini (Panthrakikos, Atromitos, Aris), Israel Kohl (Apollon Smyrna), Valentin Roberges (Aris), George Denich (on loan to Atromitos last year), Ilian Iliev (son of Ilian Iliev, who played for AEK in 1998) and Panagiotis Artymatas (on loan to Kifissia last year) and Dimitris Pinakas, on loan from Olympiakos B.

Apollo’s star is John Pittas. The 24-year-old Cypriot winger enjoyed a full season at such a level last year that he attracted interest from foreign teams. He was his top scorer in all competitions with 11 goals in 43 finals (20 of them accurate) and the first of his kind with 5 assists.