Omonia defeated AEL 2-0 at GSP Stadium in the 8th matchday of the Cyprus League by Stoiximan.
After the derby, the coaches of the “Greens,” Henning Berg, and the “Blue-Yellows,” Hugo Martins, gave statements and commented on the match.
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Here are their statements in detail
Henning Berg
Initial comment: “We’re very happy about the win. AEL has had good results in recent matches and has quality. It was a demanding match for us, and it’s positive that we’re back on the winning side. We played well against AEK as well, but we couldn’t find the back of the net. We scored two very nice goals tonight and kept a clean sheet, which is very important. We were solid defensively, and aside from a few long-range shots, AEL didn’t threaten us.”
On Balkovec and Duvern: “Duvern seems to have a cramp; as for Jure, we’ll wait and see. He needs to undergo tests; we’re waiting. These things happen—we’ve already played a lot of games, and Balkovec has been playing constantly due to the injuries we’ve had.”
On Koulibaly’s return: “Koulibaly is a very good defender and provides extra security for the team. Of course, his return is very positive for us.”
On Nego and Akintola: “Akintola has recovered from his injury; it took him longer to get back than we anticipated. He trained normally but only participated in one practice session, and we didn’t want to take any risks. He’ll most likely be available for the match against Anorthosis. Nego had been playing a lot of minutes in a short period of time and will be out for a few weeks. Christou will be out for longer. We need to find solutions, especially with European competition coming up. We also have Viktoros, who played against AEK.”
On the many yellow cards in the match: “I don’t think it was due to fatigue; I’m not talking about the refereeing. In all these years in Cyprus, the Cyprus Football Association has never asked us about these issues. They’re trying to do their best; I’m not allowed to comment.”
Hugo Martins
On the loss: “We had the same result as in the previous game, but tonight we played much better. For me, Omonia remains the best team in the league since last season. AEK, who beat Omonia, had fewer shots than we did. We had more and still lost. Last matchday I was angry with the team; today I’m angry with the result. I’m pleased with the players’ attitude; this is the kind of performance I want to see.”
On Jovetić: “I don’t think it’s anything serious, but we didn’t want to take any more risks with our forwards. We’ve already lost Gomis and Čataković.”
On whether there’s a problem with finishing: “We had chances but didn’t score. Omonia had chances and managed to score.”
