UEFA Europa League: Apoel FC visits us

The visiting team in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 on Thursday 16 February at 21.00 in San Mamés will be the Cypriot Apoel FC, a veteran team in European football.

They currently leads the Cyprus First Division with three points of advantage of second-placed AEL Limassol.

As far as European competitions are concerned, during the current season, Thomas Christiansen’s team have eliminated the New Saints FC Welsh (0-0 and 3-0) to Norwegian Rosenborg (2-1 and 3-0) and lost in the playoff rounds against the Danish Hobenhavn (1-0 and 1-1).

In the UEFA Europa League they have qualified as first group with twelve points after winning four wins (against Astana 2-1, Olympiacos 0-1 and 2-0 and Young Boys 2-1) and two defeats on Astana ( 2-1) and Young Boys (3-1).

APOEL is a team with an extensive European background since its debut in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963, in what was the first participation in the continental competition of Cypriot football and, therefore, of the club. It passed a round and it get his bigger thrashing in official competition, a 16-1 against the Sporting of Portugal, set that was in the end champion.

They have played 174 European games with 55 wins, 44 draws and 75 defeats.

His baggage in the present decade leaves us six participations in the UEFA Champions League:


2009-10 Group Stage.
2011-12 Quater-finals.
2013-14 Third phase.
2014-15 Group Stage.
2015-16 Play-off round.
2016-17 Play-off round.

Currently ranked 85th in the UEFA general ranking with 24,110 points. To contextualize its potential, it must be taken into account that it comes from a very low starting European league.

In the next higher positions are rivals known as Torino FC (77) Trabzonspor AS (78) – Valverde’s first European elimination on the bench – rivals of the League as RC Celta de Vigo (79) Real Sociedad (80) , Recently eliminated teams of the Champions like the GNK Dinamo of Zagreb (81) German equipment of reputation like VfB Sttutgart (82) and Hannover 96 (83) and a European veteran like Slovan Liberec (84)

A step below are Maccabi Tel Aviv (86) 1.FSV Mainz 05 (87) the historic Feyenoord (88) the newly European rival FC Augsburg (89) the Southampton FC (90) rival in preseason, the French Lille LOSC 91) and the Swansea City AFC Welshman struggling to remain in the Premier League.

In the UEFA coefficient corresponding only to this season, our team is ranked 33 and the Cypriot 40.

Precedents against Cypriots
The European precedents against teams of Cyprus go back to the season 1994-95 with a confrontation against the Anorthosis, with a 2-0 in the first leg and a 3-0 in San Mamés (Guerrero, Goikoetxea, Andrinua).

Of that double confrontation rescued between the protagonists directed by Javier Irureta to Andrinua, Urrutia, Ziganda, Mendiguren, Valverde and Estibariz as belonging at present, in diverse responsibilities, Athletic Club. The first four repeated their presence in both games.