A lot of interesting things were said in the aftermath of the 2-2 draw between Apollon and APOEL at “Alphamega Stadium” for the fourth matchday of the Cyprus League by Stoiximan.
Ernán Lozada focused on Koun’s penalty kick and the fact that his team struggled offensively in the second half.
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Nikos Papadopoulos complained about the red card he received after the match ended for vehemently protesting to the referee. In fact, he revealed that he asked the referee never to officiate another match for the “blue-and-yellows” again.
In detail:
Apollon (Ernán Losada): “At halftime, we spoke with the players and said we needed to score a third goal to ‘seal the deal.’ However, in the second half, it felt like the game was over. There were almost no scoring chances, and, unfortunately, we made a mistake, conceded the second goal, and the game ended 2-2.
After the score tied at 2-2, I tried to make the team more aggressive. I took out a center back and put Konomi in his place, but we weren’t able to score the winning goal.
I’m not satisfied with the result, and I can never be satisfied when we don’t win at home. However, we have to accept it and, given the time we have ahead of us, regroup and wait for the injured players to return.
I hope the players who will be competing with their national teams return healthy, and I believe that after the break, our season will truly begin.”
On the injured players: “When the league resumes, we’ll have at least four players returning.”
APOEL (Nikos Papadopoulos): “It was a game where we conceded a goal early on. However, we fought back—unlike in other games—which we liked. Today we showed passion and intensity, which is very important.”
We’re not satisfied with these four points. There are certain reasons, but if I mention them, they’ll be seen as excuses. Another thing I’d like to say is that over these four matches, we haven’t received the respect we deserve. And if we don’t have respect, we’ll try to earn it.
In the 20 years I’ve been a coach, I’ve never been ejected. Today I was ejected because I told the referee at the end that I didn’t want APOEL to do that again, and he sent me off. If that’s the reason, I can’t say anything else.”
