APOEL Nicosia vs. Olympique Lyonnais: A Fairy Tale Win for the Cyprus Club

Despite the fact that heavyweights such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal have crashed out in premature fashion, this season's Champions League has been nothing short of enthralling. 

Another riveting match followed today. 

APOEL Nicosia, a club based in Cyprus, took on French heavyweights Olympique Lyon in the second leg of the knock-out stage of the Champions League. 

APOEL went into the match down by a goal and needed at least one goal to have any hopes of proceeding. Furthermore, they had not scored at Lyon, so they needed to ensure defensive solidity and bar Lyon from scoring any away goals which could have taken all hopes away. 

APOEL, like Arsenal yesterday, started out in superb fashion. In the ninth minute, Konstantinos Charalambides punished a defensive lapse from Lyon by crossing in a ball towards the far post which was met by Gustavo Manduca. 

It was 1-0 APOEL and 1-1 on aggregate!

There were few chances for both sides in the game, with the majority of the chances falling for APOEL who should have made it 2-0.

In the 56th minute, Lyon’s heart must have been beating as the free-kick by Helder Sousa hit the crossbar after being deflected.

APOEL found themselves in a great position again in the 71st minute, as APOEL went on an offensive surge. But, Esteban Solari fired inches wide.

The home club was nearly punished a minute later; however, Dionisis Chitois made a fine stop to deny Lisandro Lopez.

There was a shoddy penalty appeal from Ailton in the 88th minute, for which he was penalized, before the game into extra time.

Lyon had a glorious opportunity to bring the scores level and put the game beyond APOEL’s reach in the 103rd minute, but a fantastic save by the APOEL keeper to keep out Bakary Kone’s header.

The lone goal scorer of the night received a second yellow for the night in the dying stages of the game. Lyon could not capitalize on it though, and the game proceeded to extra time.

After being 3-3 in penalties, Chiotis, the keeper who had denied Lyon so many opportunities, saved the spot kick from Alexandre Lacazette.

Ivan Tričkovski converted the forth kick.

APOEL 4—3 Lyon.

Michel Bastos took to the spot for the fifth kick. However, he missed, and allowed APOEL to advance to the quarter finals.

APOEL who started the journey into the European stage as a virtually unheard club outside of Greece have now qualified to the quarter final stages of the Champions League in superb fashion.

They topped the group that consisted of last year's Europa League champions Porto, Russian heavyweights Zenit St. Petersburg and Ukranian Champions Shakhtar Donetsk. 

And now they have eliminated one of France's greatest ever clubs.

Can APOEL cause further major upsets?

We will have to wait and see. 

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