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EURO HISTORYAgain they were beaten away, losing 3-0
in East Germany, but they did achieve
their first-ever European Cup victory
in the second leg in Cyprus, securing a
2-1 win thanks to goals from Andreas
Chailis and Giorgos Petrou.
The 1980s were a relatively fruitless
period for the club and, after their 1980
championship success, they only won
one further title, in 1986. That meant a
return to the European Cup and having
beaten HJK Helsinki 1-0 at home –
former Spur Ian Moores scoring the
winner from the penalty spot – they
progressed for the first time in the
tournament thanks to a 3-2 defeat in
Finland, edging through on away goals.
APOEL were drawn against Besiktas
in round two, the first time a Cypriot
side had ever faced a Turkish team in
European competition. Unfortunately,
the Cypriot government prohibited
APOEL from playing the game and
the club were banned from any UEFA
competition for two years, later
reduced to one season.
Five years later though, they made
a return to the top table of European
football and once again faced German
opponents, this time the mighty Bayern
Munich. APOEL ran them close inNicosia, taking a 2-1 lead through Sinisa
Gogic and Kyriakos Pantziaras and the
Germans needed two goals in the final
three minutes from Alan McInally and
Thomas Strunz to emerge with the
win. A 4-0 triumph in Munich ended
APOEL’s interest.
The competition changed to become
the Champions League the following
season and APOEL were involved
in the first staging of the new-look
tournament, going out on away goals to
AEK Athens after a 3-3 aggregate draw.
As with many of the so-called
‘smaller’ nations, football in Cyprus
had become much more professional
and competitive as the sport entered
the new millennium and they enjoyed
their first run of any real note in the
Champions League in 2002-03. A 1-0
home win against Flora of Estonia
thanks to a Stavros Georgiou goal
was enough to see them progress from
the first qualifying round and they then
defeated Slovenia’s NK Maribor 5-4 on
aggregate after a 4-2 home win in the
second leg in Nicosia. That meant a re-
match with AEK, but once again it was
the Greeks who emerged victorious,
winning both legs to go through 4-2.
There was frustration for APOEL intheir next two forays in the Champions
League, going out at the first hurdle in
2004-05 to Sparta Prague and in 2007-
08 to Bate Borisov of Belarus.
But with more and more experience
of playing at that level, along with the
introduction of overseas players into
APOEL’s squad, the club was beginning
to find its feet in the Champions League
and enjoyed a great campaign in 2009-
10, reaching the group stage for the
first time.
After a straightforward 5-0
aggregate win over EB/Streymur
of the Faroe Islands in the second
qualifying round, they overcameBelow:
Dionisios
Chiotis saves
Alexandre
Lacazette's
penalty as
APOEL beat
Lyon in 2012Right: APOEL
head to
Chelsea in
2009-19