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TOTTENHAMHOTSPUR.COM
hen APOEL run out onto the pitch this
evening, they will be the first Cypriot
club side to play at Wembley Stadium
and, indeed, even Cyprus’ national team
has only ever played here once.
That came during qualification for
the 1976 European Championships, when the two teams
were in group one alongside Czechoslovakia and Portugal.
Under the management of Don Revie, England featured in
the first three games – all taking place here at Wembley.
They beat the Czechs 3-0 in October, 1974, and followed
that up with a goalless draw the following month against
Portugal.
In April, 1975, Cyprus arrived in north-west London
for their first-ever game against England and the match
was dominated by one man – Newcastle United’s Malcolm
MacDonald. Winning the ninth of his 14 England caps,
MacDonald single-handedly destroyed the Mediterranean
visitors, scoring all five goals as the Three Lions cruised
to a 5-0 win, leading to the headline the following day
‘Supermac 5 Cyprus 0’.
No Spurs players featured in the game, or in England’s
1-0 win in at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol in the return
game.
England failed to qualify for Euro 76, finishing behind
Czechoslovakia in the group, while Cyprus ended bottom
of the pool, losing all six matches. The Czechs went on
to win the tournament, held in Yugoslavia, beating West
Germany in the final thanks to a delicate chipped penalty
from Antonin Panenka, whose name remains synonymous
with such styled spotkicks to this day.
When we played at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium
in Larnaca against AEL Limassol in the Europa League
play-off round in August, 2014, it was the fourth time onour European travels that we’d played different clubs at
the same venue. Seven years earlier, we met Anorthosis
Famagusta at that stadium in our UEFA Cup first round,
second leg.
The first occasion was as far back as 1963 when our
eighth competitive match on foreign soil was played at
the same venue as our second away fixture. Feyenoord
Stadium, also known as De Kuip, was where we won our
first away game in Europe, a 3-1 victory on November 1,- We returned some 18 months later for the final of
the European Cup-Winners’ Cup on May 15, 1963, against
holders Atletico Madrid.
The Prater Stadium in Vienna played host to our 2-2
draw with FK Austria in the UEFA Cup quarter-final on
LINKSCYPRIOT CONNECTIONS
Jack Roles in UEFA Youth League action against Real MadridThe Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium in Larnaca