Appollon Limassol Vs Cork City CLQR1

gimmick

This game is live on RTE2 tonight with a KO of 7pm.

City of course take a 1-0 lead into tonigts game, a game which Lemonsalt feel is a mere formality. They reckon that last weeks result was a pure fluke, because City played long balls all night! Now, I dont know which game he was looking at, but City tore them apart by playing incisive football for the entire 2nd half last week.

As for tonight, I feel Limassol will be edgy and trying to get an early goal, a tactic which IMO will suit City. I think Citys excellent away European form and experioence will stand them in good stead, and will score tonight.

Prediction: Apple and Lemonsalt 0 - 1 City

johnos

Cork have to take a positive approach, even if they are missing key men. If they try to defend a one-goal lead, they will regret it. I'd say they can do it, if they keep cool heads, but not if they play the way they did towards the end of the first leg.

_blank_

Well, I'd love it if City progressed, love it. And I think they can. The players are there, and they proved last week that Everyone's Friend George isn't as much of a legend as he seems to think he is. If City can play as they did in the second half last week they'll go through. If both teams play like they did in the first half last week, then City will be through aswell. I hope it's the former.

C'mon City

KdjaCL

Cork to win 1 -2



kdjac

Bateman

They made hard work of the first leg, a match they could have won easily if they has showed less nerves and more composure. I am not so sure this is a formality. Cork won't like the heat, and that goes for the heat coming from the terraces as well as the heat coming from the sun. I can see a score draw here; although an early goal would be disastrous for Cork, it could really knock the stuffing out of them. It's really in the balance.

eirebhoy

I don't understand why Rico had them training at 7.30am (5.30 Irish time) to avoid the heat. Surely he'd want them getting used to the heat?

gimmick

I would imagine the temperature at that hour would be more or less the same as what it will be at 9pm Cyprus time this evening.

Also, he obviously doesnt want the players getting sunburned or sun/heatstroke.

Bateman wrote:

the heat coming from the terraces as well

If Lemonsalt dont get an early goal, i would imagine their fans will turn on them. They were, afterall, expecting to win this by 8-0 on aggregate!

Bateman

gimmick wrote:

If Lemonsalt dont get an early goal, i would imagine their fans will turn on them. They were, afterall, expecting to win this by 8-0 on aggregate!

Said who?

KdjaCL

Bateman wrote:

Said who?

Ronnie Whelan ex Limasol manager


Is the game on the national radio? Will be on the way to Longford so wont see it.


kdjac

_blank_

Their fans on the CCFC official website forum.

Töpher

Arrogant gits they are, think Hajduk Split!

Best of luck to Cork, and I hope those fans travelling have a good time. Hopefully they'll come home with fans frantically trying to book dates away for Red Star Belgrade! And 0.333 coefficient points for the league in their back pockets!

radiospan

C'mon City!

An away goal and we're through methinks.

cournioni

Bah, two good chances for O'Donovan and Beehan... Need to put those away lads!

_blank_

And a couple of good saves by Devine too.

If City can get a bit more posession they'll score. The Limassol defence looks suspect, and Fenn has had a nice few bits of posession, taking it to them.

All in all, nil all at half time isn't bad. Hopefully we'll see the right result.

Kingp35

Decenet first half performance but Apollon had by far the better of it in the last 15 minutes. Devine has had to make some good saves. Cork have give the ball away far too much, they need to get it down and pass it more so they dont have to sit so deep. O' Donovan had a great chance and if that had have gone it then Cork would have been through. Apollon have just missed a great chance there again with a tame effort. O' Brien needs to calm down or he will be off very soon.

Anyone see the 3 Cork fans in the crowd? Yes please

Kingp35

**** sake!! 1-1. Simple ball played forward.

andrewie

Cork are all over the place!

_blank_

Yesssss!

Dan Murray you legend!

1-1 on the night.

Away goal for City.

1-2 on Aggregate.

cournioni

Get in!!!!!!!! Dan Murray 1-1!

Kingp35

Great stuff. Murray has been great all night. Apollon need 2.

besty

Great header followed up by a great save from the free kick there. Come on Cork!

Chucky the tree

Brilliant result! Red star will be very tough next round, but who knows?!

gimmick

Woohoo. What a result. Captaiins performance by Murray, and Mick Devine, well - the man is international class.

Bring on Red Star, or whatever it is they are called nowadays!

_blank_

Brilliant result. Maybe they can do it against Red Star, eL teams have been written off in Europe before.

Keep the belief, it just might happen.

Necronomicon

Well a lot of people had written City off before this one, so who knows! Many congrats to the boys.

Rikand

Jaysis, great result for the lads hopefully they can do the business against red star now

cournioni

G'wan the langers!

Töpher

Great stuff from the wollybacks from Cark! Fantastic result! Not the best by game, but who the hell cares?!

applehunter

City played into their hands in the 1st half but really got their act together after the goal. Great saves from Mick Devine.

Red Star next week. Maybe with George back and another Massive night at the Cross we can do something special.

Ger Canning is a gowl!:mad:

_blank_

applehunter wrote:

gowl!

I love that word.

wheres me jumpa

Well done to Cork and congrats to their fans.

Hats off to RTE for showing it, didnt think they would be showing the away leg. Hopefully the media can get behind this win and plaster it across the papers tomorrow.

cournioni

wheres me jumpa wrote:

Well done to Cork and congrats to their fans.

Hats off to RTE for showing it, didnt think they would be showing the away leg. Hopefully the media can get behind this win and plaster it across the papers tomorrow.

They have no excuse not to... There really is feck all happening in the world of football at the moment apart from that boring Italian transfer saga.

wheres me jumpa

PORNAPSTER wrote:

They have no excuse not to... There really is feck all happening in the world of football at the moment apart from that boring Italian transfer saga.

Ok heres the question.

Which tabloid will dedicate the most of their backpage to this story? And what percentage of their backpage.

Ill go with the Star - 50%

applehunter

I say "The Sun" with 75%!

They had more coverage than anybody else.

Dont think either the Irish Independent or the Irish Times had their soccer writers at the match. Think they are using freelancers.

Sooner or Later

Congrats to Cork.

Great result for them and for Irish football.

gimmick

The Irish Times had a reporter there as far as I know.

Really looking forward to hearing what the Cypriots have to say. They were not expecting this at all

The fracas at the end was caused by a fella pushing Danny Murphy for no reason,, he pushed back, and then they all ran in.

finnpark

Well done Cork. I predicted a 4-0 drubbing for Cork . Really i did the thread is on here somewhere. Boy am i pleased to be wrong yet again.

This is getting too easy for irish sides:
Derry City to lose 5-0 and drogs to lose 3-0, ah what the heck make it 4-0. The last few years has been one big flook for irish rteams. they are not that good surely.


Antone got any explanatuions as tow hy irish sides are actually winning in europe the past few years?

gimmick

^ Summer season, and a better attitude toward professionalism by most irish clubs, except Longford of course

evilhomer

Glad to see the Irish clubs winning a few games in Europe. The summer football has really helped.
I believe whoever gets into Europe (CL) next year from Ireland will be seeded?
Thats a huge step in avoiding the larger clubs in the first round.
If Cork can beat Belgrade they will hopefully either get
A) An "easy" third round team
A huge team and therefore a huge gate (Lansdowne Road Again Probably, if it's a really big team)

I would prefer A and a see the boys in the champions league

zAbbo

It was a good game, I thought Fenn was a different class.

radiospan

This means four Champions League games in consecutive weeks for City.

The eL have allowed us to postpone our weekend league games.

gimmick

Just on last nights game, there are a few players who really deserve special mentions -

Dan Murray - I have criticised him in the past, most notably after the Longford game. i wanted him out of the club. Since then, he has been everything a captain should be, and played the game of his career last night. Tough tackling, good distribution, unbeaten in the air, and of course the small matter of the goal.

Neal Fenn - What a touch that man has. I dont think I have ever seen him mis control it. He is no longer just collecting his wages, he is earning every cent. He held the ball up so well and cleverly. He annoyed Lemonsalt all night, even over the 2 legs.

Joe Gamble - While he didnt stand out, his workrate over the 2 legs was fantastic. Shakey in the 1st half, first leg, but last night commanded the middle of the park.

Mick Devine - Best keeper in the eL by a country mile. 2 brilliant stops last night, one from the free kick, and the other from Alan Bennetts almost og. But to look at just those is half of it. His command of his area is second to none, and it must be so comforting for the defence knowing that he is behind them.

Roddy23

Excellent result for Cork last night. When the Polish lad scored for Limassol thought that might be curtains, but fairplay to Cork, they took the game to the hosts. I thought Rico's change of Woods and O'Donovan was the turning point, after that Cork were able to keep the ball much better, and Fenn came into the game really well, with some excellent touches.
Devine made some brilliant saves, and Bennett and Murray, were crucial in the second half. Lovely floated corner from Fenn, and a fine header from Murray.
Will be cheering them on against Red Star.

Lads whens the draw for the third round?

The Rooster

Well done to Cork. After seeing the awful attempt by O'Donovan when clean through, and then the relatively easy AL goal early in the second half, I thought they were in big trouble. But fair play, they dug in and deserved what they got.

The draw for the 3rd round takes place on Friday July 28.

Roar

got back from cyprus this monring, covered in sunburn and mosquito bites..

great performance from city last night, absolutely top class given the heat and the humidity..

micke devine, what can you say about him, the man is world class, i hope steve staunton was watching last night, deserves a call up.

dan murray, what a legend.. dealt with everything that came his way, and pops up with a goal when it mattered most.. interesting point, he's now the clubs top scorer in europe with three goals, tied with another legend, pat morley.

it was a very hostile atmosphere there last night, about 8 thousand in attendance, joe gamble was tellin me afterwards that city came out of the dressing rooms and the apollon players were there waiting for them, shouting and screaming and trying to intimidate.

the scenes after the final whistle, well someone went for danny murphy, i think it was an apollon coach or something, and to be fair to danny he tried to walk away, but your man kept at him.

when roy went down injured near the end he said he was hit by about 6 or 7 lighters and coins, when the players went down the tunnel objects were still raining down on the players.

bad losers, apollon were cocky, arrrogant, claiming the would "win and win well" and that cork city were a long ball team etc..

one thing i have to say though, up until city scored the apollon fans were fantastic, it was like a wall of noise, one side of the ground would chant at the other, the other would respond etc..

mick devine man of the match, followed closley by dan and fenny, who was superb last nite.

bring on belgrade..

redspider

Congratulations to Cork. Good to see an Irish club progress. The LOI needs this success badly. I only saw the goal highlights but according to most reports it was a deserved result over the 2 legs.

> the scenes after the final whistle, well someone went for danny murphy, i think it was an apollon coach or something, and to be fair to danny he tried to walk away, but your man kept at him.

Its terrible to hear about this type of thing going on. Was the game in Cork in anyway hostile to Appollon, or were they just %$£bags last night ?

The Ref should make a report to Uefa and it should have some consequences. Playing in a hostile away location is one of the things which affects football. In some ways, this detracts too mujch from the football on the pitch and there is some validity to the suggestion that football matches should be played on neutral grounds which capacity divided up equally between the fans.

Redspider

gimmick

^ Oh there are consequences. It seems that Danny Murphy and Joe Gamble were red carded after the final whistle, leaving them suspended for next week?

Roar

it also appears the referee didnt inform city after the game last night. that and i didnt see any cards being issued, there was two form apollon sent off as well so you'd imagine someone would have seen four reds being issued, unless they were issued in the tunnel.

anyone know if the referee's authority ends when he walks off the pitch and if he's allowed to send off players in the dressing room/tunnel area?

Bateman

I was going nuts for RTE to whole the ruck at the end, but their camera was focussed on the half way line. There's nothing like followign your team on a good European away trip, fair play to Cork they've given their fans another one to look forward to. I would still be wary about "summer soccer has given us great progress" etc, unless Cork actually eliminate Red Star I'm not so sure we've made dramatic progress. Sure we are beating a few teams above us, and we are improving the co-efficient all the time, but unless Cork beat Red Star we are back in our box really.

Roar

^ I disagree.

Summer soccer has worked wonders for eL clubs in europe. Look at City last night. Midway through their season, fully fit, facing an Apollon team who've had just four pre season games. And despite the heat and humidity it was apollon who tired near the end and allowed city to score.

johnos

Well done Cork. Couldn't get to see it, but seems to have been well-deserved.
Now, what's a gowl?