did not make it even the fifth time
APOEL suffered a shock defeat from Ethnikos. A week after his big win over Anorthosis in the top derby, he lost 2-1 in Dasaki giving all his pursuers the chance to close the gap again.
The two goals he conceded from Cabrera at the start of the replay (50', 56') were… stabs and despite reducing early (60') with Tomane, he couldn't even get the point, missing a great chance in the 90+ 12' with Ephraim (APOEL's third goal in the match).
And now APOEL has failed to make an upset in its fifth attempt in this year's championship. The blue-and-yellows have been behind in the score in five games – all away games – and in those matches they got only two draws. In fact, in three of the five cases, the score was 2-0 in favor of the home team, but in none of the matches did the match end without APOEL scoring.
The beginning took place in Omonia-APOEL in the first round where the greens led 2-0 (final 2-1). This was followed by the derby with Anorthosis in "A. Papadopoulos" (1-1) and the defeat by Aris (1-0). Recently it was the match against Apollon in Limassol where he found himself losing 2-0 and equalized with two goals in the replay (2-2) while today (12/1) he tried to do something similar in Dasaki, but this time he did not avoid the defeat.
These matches brought five of APOEL's six losses in the league, with the only other being the 1-1 home draw with Apollon in the first round, where the blue-yellows took the lead and drew. The defeat against Ethnikos is his first defeat in the league as all his other losses were in derbies.