SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2016 Nicosia derby - more than just a game NICOSIA: The Nicosia derby between AC and sociologist Antonis Raftis said. to Omonia or an Omonia player went to Cyprus and its people including Turkish Omonia and APOEL FC is the biggest event The derby used to be ‘the fixture’ that APOEL. It still doesn’t happen that often,” Cypriots,” Peristianis said. “Today you will on Cyprus’s sporting calendar but it’s more usually decided who would be crowned said Petrosian who played over a 100 times see fans waving different flags in the stadi- than just a football game on an island champions of Cyprus, but Omonia is not for APOEL from 1985-1992. The latest derby um, Omonia fans with their Cyprus flags and divided by politics. Passions run high when the power it once was while APOEL have triggered a war of words between the two Che Guevara t-shirts and APOEL fans with the island’s two most decorated teams been serial winners for more than a sides after Omnia reduced to 10 men fol- their Greek flags,” he added. come up against each other as they did this decade. “As a player you saw it as the lowing a sending off-accused match offi- Omonia won their last league title when week when APOEL won 4-1 in a match that biggest game because it was always the cials of siding with their rivals. Following the communist party was in power, sup- deepened the feud between clubs repre- game where you could win or lose the Saturday’s clash APOEL are third in the ported by then president and unabashed senting opposing political ideologies. title,” former APOEL forward Ara Petrosian, championship with Omnia fourth. Omonia fan Demetris Christofias. A former Omonia sees itself as the ‘team of the peo- 49 said. “In those days Omonia had the As Omonia’s fortunes waned over the friend and Omonia chairman told a court ple’ whose supporters are associated with biggest fan base, but APOEL have caught years APOEL created history by becoming recently that Christofias encouraged him to the left, especially the communist party. up because they are winning.” In the 1970s the first Cypriot team to reach the quarter- go on a spending spree that helped win the On the other side of town fans of APOEL and 1980s, Omonia were the undisputed finals of the Champion League (2012). They title in 2009-10 but crippled the club finan- are linked to the right and the ruling con- number one club securing 20 league titles are the only local team to reach the group cially. Omonia’s success came at a time servatives DISY, as well as extremist fac- and 14 cups in all. But they last won the stage three times. APOEL’s European when the right was discredited as they were tions who associate themselves with the championship in 2010. exploits have generated millions in revenue blamed for the 1974 Turkish invasion which club. For good or ill, football in Cyprus is while Omonia have struggled financially, was triggered by a Greek-engineered coup intertwined with the politics of an island’s Bad feeling even appealing to fans to make contribu- to unite the island with Greece. And some 42-year division into a Turkish-held north APOEL are now the most decorated tions. Sporting glory apart, sociologist Nicos might argue that APOEL has risen to the top and Greek Cypriot south. “In Cyprus when Cypriot team winning 25 league titles and Peristianis says the rivals represent two ‘his- as the right gained favor in Cyprus politics. it comes to the big teams-they have their 21 cups. Bad feeling lingers between the torical blocks’ in Cyprus society-nationalists “There are two parallel contests going on, a own (political) colour, they are either left or two clubs since Omonia members and (APOEL) and anti-nationalists (Omonia). political contest and a football contest and right, you can know someone’s politics players split from APOEL in 1948 over poli- “APOEL is Helloncentric and espouses Greek people want to be winners in both,” said from the team they support,” psychologist tics. “In my day APOEL players never went identity and ideas while Omonia focuses on Peristianis. — AFP FRENCH LEAGUE PREVIEW GERMAN LEAGUE PREVIEW Pressure on Emery as PSG Top meets bottom as meet Nice in summit clash Leipzig face Ingolstadt PARIS: Unai Emery is once again a coach League meeting with Russian outfit Krasnodar. BERLIN: Bottom faces top today when basement Hoffenheim last weekend. The match pits the under pressure as his Paris Saint-Germain side Monaco travel to Bordeaux today knowing a dwellers Ingolstadt host unbeaten Bundesliga league’s top strikers against each other with prepare to face Nice on Sunday looking to win would take them provisionally top of the leaders RB Leipzig, who are chasing an eight Anthony Modeste having hit 12 goals in 13 close the gap on the surprise Ligue 1 leaders. table, above Nice on goal difference. Leonardo straight win to keep Bayern Munich off the top. RB league games. Both Aubameyang and Marco A 12-game unbeaten run had appeared the Jardim’s prolific side are still running at an Leipzig’s coach Ralph Hassenhuettl returns to Reus are in form as the pair both scored at Real. perfect response to early-season criticism of average of more than three goals per game Ingolstadt, who he left in May having taken them Andre Schubert is in danger of becoming the Emery at PSG, but in the last week the and were able to rest key players for from the bottom of the second division to sixth Bundesliga coach fired this season and his Spaniard has seen his side humbled 3-0 by Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Germany’s top flight in his three seasons. Borussia Moenchengladbach badly need a win Montpellier and then left to scramble a 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen in Germany having already Ingolstadt, who have slipped down to 18th in the at Mainz on Sunday. Gladbach are winless in draw with Ludogorets in the Champions qualified for the last 16 as group winners. They tablea fter their 2-1 defeat at Werder Bremen, have their last eight games following Tuesday’s 4-0 League. After two such worrying performanc- are targeting the symbolic title of topping the yet to win a match at home this season.Leipzig, trashing at Barcelona. Schubert’s side are cur- es, it is debatable whether Emery could even table at the year’s end and striker Valere meanwhile, have the best away record in the rently 13th, five points from the relegation survive a defeat at home to Nice, which Germain said: “It would be nice to be autumn Bundesligawith five wins and two draws. places, and their last league win was in late would leave the defending champions seven champions and we will give everything in the RB are the surprise package this season and September. points adrift of the southern upstarts with the final matches of the year to do that.” have now been top of the table since Bayern’s 1- Director of sport Max Eberl says Gladbach’s season’s halfway stage approaching. Lyon will aim to bounce back from the dis- 0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund a fortnight ago. next three Bundesliga games, against bottom- “It is a difficult spell, but we will show a appointment of being eliminated from the Timo Werner, the club’s top scorer with eight half clubs Mainz, Augsburg and Wolfsburg are reaction on Sunday in what is a huge match Champions League after failing to get the goals, has been in the spotlight for the wrong crucial. Fourth-placed Hoffenheim, who along for us,” insisted midfielder Blaise Matuidi, just better of Sevilla as they host Rennes. Rennes reasons this week.After being awarded a penal- with Leipzig are the league’s only unbeaten about the only PSG player deserving of pass are fourth but have struggled away from ty just 19 seconds into last Saturday’s 2-1 win at teams, are at Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday with marks against Ludogorets. PSG needed a late home this season and Lyon can leapfrog home to Schalke, replays showed Werner dived. both sides on 25 points. Under Julian Angel di Maria equaliser to avoid defeat at them with a win. — AFP Second-placed Bayern Munich host VfL Nagelsmann, the youngest coach in Bundesliga home to the Bulgarians after a lacklustre dis- Wolfsburg on Saturday in a repeat of the match history at 29, are one of the league’s surprise play but the result meant they finished sec- French Ligue 1 Table which broke four Bundesliga records last season packages this season. — AFP ond in Champions League Group A to when Robert Lewandowski scored five goals in Arsenal. “This disappointment must give us nine minutes. German Bundesliga Table the desire to lift our hands and show a differ- French Ligue 1 table ahead of this week- Bayern’s Germany forward Thomas Mueller is ent face in the last 16. We must improve, and end’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, without a Bundesliga goal is his 12 games so far, that starts on Sunday against Nice,” said goals for, goals against, points): while Lewandowski has been regularly hitting German Bundesliga table ahead of the Emery in his still stumbling French. Nice 16 12 3 1 30 10 39 the net. The Poland hot-shot netted twice in last weekend’s matches (played, won, drawn, PSG have Adrien Rabiot and Javier Pastore Monaco 16 11 3 2 49 16 36 Friday’s 3-1 win at Mainz before drilling in the lost, goals for, goals against, points): on the sidelines while Di Maria is in wretched Paris SG 16 11 2 3 30 11 35 winning goal in Tuesday’s 1-0 home win against RB Leipzig 13 10 3 0 29 11 33 form, so they may look to Hatem Ben Arfa for Rennes 16 8 3 5 18 19 27 Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.