Our national U-21 team ended its away campaign with a loss as part of the qualifying round for the European U-21 Championship.
In tonight’s match in Pristina, despite taking a 1-0 lead, they lost 2-1 to Kosovo, finishing the match with nine players.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The match was part of Group A of the tournament, and Cyprus finished with three points in its group.
Our national team played well for much of the match and showed that it could come away with a point after winning its last away game.
Unfortunately, however, during a few unfortunate moments, the home team managed to turn the tide and ultimately secure the victory, taking advantage of the fact that in the 78th minute, Angelopoulos was sent off with a second yellow card, and in the 86th minute, Zacharias Ioannidis was also sent off with a second yellowcard.
Cyprus opened the scoring in the 52nd minute following a drive and a superb finish by Savvas Kontopoulos. Kosovo equalized with a penalty kick taken by Berisha in the 69th minute and took a 2-1 lead with a goal by Larim in the 76th minute.
Even with nine players, our team tried to create opportunities and pushed for the equalizer. Unfortunately, however, this great effort did not yield even a single point for our national team players.
Marios Nikolaou gave playing time to several players who will be eligible to participate in the next tournament.
It is noteworthy that, compared to the previous match against Romania, he made eight changes to the starting lineup.
Cyprus: Ortelli, Ioannidis, Nikolaou (81’ Koutsoudakis), Kyriakou, Angelopoulos, Vrontis, Avramidis, Poursaitidis (86’ Christodoulou), Tzoulou (66’ Zenonos), Kontopoulos (86’ Charalambous), Savva (82’ Panteli).
Our national team will wrap up its schedule next Tuesday (October 6) against San Marino at the AEK Arena.
