UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE - 2018/19 SEASON MATCH PRESS KITS GSP - Nicosia Thursday 29 November 2018 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Apollon Limassol FC Group H - Matchday 5 SS Lazio Last updated 21/02/2019 17:43CET Previous meetings 2 Match background 4 Team facts 6 Squad list 8 Fixtures and results 10 Match-by-match lineups 13 Match officials 16 Legend 17 1 Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio Thursday 29 November 2018 - 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Match press kit GSP, Nicosia Previous meetings Head to Head UEFA Europa League Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Luis Alberto 14, 20/09/2018 GS SS Lazio - Apollon Limassol FC 2-1 Rome Immobile 84 (P); Zelaya 87 UEFA Europa League Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Floccari 14, 37; 07/11/2013 GS SS Lazio - Apollon Limassol FC 2-1 Rome Papoulis 39 24/10/2013 GS Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio 0-0 Nicosia Home Away Final Total Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L GF GA Apollon Limassol FC 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 2 2 4 SS Lazio 2 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 4 2 Apollon Limassol FC - Record versus clubs from opponents' country UEFA Europa League Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Apollon Limassol FC - Atalanta Zelaya 90+4; Iličić 35 02/11/2017 GS 1-1 Nicosia BC (P) Iličić 12, Petagna 64, Atalanta BC - Apollon Limassol 19/10/2017 GS 3-1 Reggio Emilia Freuler 66; Schembri FC 59 UEFA Cup Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Špoljarić 12, Šćepović 30, Iosifides 81; Apollon Limassol FC - FC 3-3 03/11/1993 R2 Limassol Shalimov 6, Internazionale Milano agg: 3-4 Bergkamp 9, Fontolan 39 FC Internazionale Milano - 20/10/1993 R2 1-0 Milan Bergkamp 7 Apollon Limassol FC SS Lazio - Record versus clubs from opponents' country UEFA Cup Date Stage Match Result Venue Goalscorers Xiourouppas 68; 1-2 26/09/1995 R1 AC Omonia - SS Lazio Nicosia Casiraghi 15, Di Vaio agg: 1-7 75 Casiraghi 12, 17, 88, 12/09/1995 R1 SS Lazio - AC Omonia 5-0 Rome Rambaudi 53, Signori 56 (P) 2 Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio Thursday 29 November 2018 - 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Match press kit GSP, Nicosia Home Away Final Total Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L Pld W D L GF GA Apollon Limassol FC 3 0 3 0 4 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 7 0 3 4 7 12 SS Lazio 3 3 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 4 1 0 11 3 3 Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio Thursday 29 November 2018 - 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Match press kit GSP, Nicosia Match background Eliminated from UEFA Europa League Group H on matchday four, Apollon Limassol will hope to crown their final European home game of the season by ending their record-breaking winless run in the competition. Their opponents, Lazio, are already through to the knockout phase for the sixth time. • Back-to-back defeats by Eintracht Frankfurt in their last two matches (0-2 away, 2-3 home) sealed Apollon’s fate after they had taken just one point from their first two games, in a 2-2 home draw with Marseille. • Lazio bounced back from a 4-1 defeat in Frankfurt, in which they had two players sent off, by doing the double over 2017/18 runners-up Marseille (3-1 away, 2-1 home) to secure their round of 32 berth with two games to spare, albeit with a three-point deficit on the German club. Previous meetings • Lazio defeated Apollon 2-1 in Rome on matchday one. The clubs' only previous encounters had come when they were paired together in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League group stage, a 0-0 draw in Cyprus preceding another 2-1 home win for Lazio two weeks later. Fotis Papoulis, Bruno Vale, Georgios Vasiliou and Marios Stylianou played in both games for Apollon, whereas Ştefan Radu is the sole Lazio survivor. • Lazio won both of their other two games against Cypriot opposition, defeating Omonia home and away in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup first round, whereas Apollon are still seeking their first win against an Italian club having lost all four away games and drawn all three at home. Indeed, no Cypriot side has ever beaten an Italian opponent in 25 UEFA club competition matches. Form guide Apollon • Domestic runners-up in league and cup last term, Apollon's sixth successive season in the UEFA Europa League kicked off in the first qualifying round, where they got the better of Lithuania's Stumbras before ousting Željezničar of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dinamo Brest of Belarus and, on away goals in the play-offs, Basel. • Apollon have been in three previous UEFA Europa League group campaigns – a fourth is a record for a Cypriot club – but have never progressed beyond this stage, finishing third in their section in 2013/14 and fourth in both 2014/15 and 2017/18. Their record in the group stage is W2 D5 L15 with no wins in the last 15 matches – a record sequence in the competition proper. • The Limassol club had won all four home games in this European campaign, scoring ten goals and conceding just one, prior to the matchday two draw against Marseille. Indeed, the defeat against Eintracht was only the second in their last 16 UEFA encounters on the island (W9 D5). Lazio • Edged out of fourth place and into fifth in last season's Serie A by Internazionale on the final day, Lazio are participating in the UEFA Europa League for the seventh time, their best performances having been in 2012/13 and 2017/18, when they reached the quarter-finals. • The Rome side have played more games in the competition than any other Italian club, this being their 61st – and 41st in the group stage. Including this season, their last six UEFA Europa League group stage participations have all been successful – after failure in the first – and they have topped their section on three of those occasions. • Runners-up to Inter in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, Lazio had three wins and three losses on the road in last season's UEFA Europa League, the matchday six defeat at Zulte Waregem ending the club's competition record-equalling run of 11 away games unbeaten (W4 D7) that had lasted since October 2013. Links and trivia • Apollon are one of four clubs who have reached this season's group stage after starting their campaign in the first qualifying round; the others are FC København, Rangers and Sarpsborg. • Lazio are one of ten clubs in the 2018/19 group stage who have lost UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League finals, the others being Anderlecht, Vidi, Salzburg, Bordeaux, Arsenal, Celtic, Sporting CP, Rangers and, on three occasions, Marseille. Of that group only Anderlecht have lifted the trophy. • The Serie A side became only the fourth club to reach 100 goals in the UEFA Europa League proper when they defeated Marseille on matchday four, Argentinian midfielder Joaquín Correa with the landmark strike. The coaches • Sofronis Avgousti has coached home-town team Apollon since December 2016, when, as caretaker, he led the club to victory in each of his first eight league matches and to a successful defence of the Cypriot Cup. He has since steered them into back-to-back UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns. Capped 11 times by Cyprus, he previously served the Limassol club in three separate spells as a goalkeeper and was also on the books of AEK 4 Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio Thursday 29 November 2018 - 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Match press kit GSP, Nicosia Larnaca, Aris Limassol and APOEL. • Lazio boss since April 2016, when he replaced Stefano Pioli, Simone Inzaghi represented the club as a forward between 1999 and 2010, winning the Italian double in his debut season and the Coppa Italia twice more in later years. The younger brother of fellow ex-Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, with whom he played at home-town outfit Piacenza, he began coaching Lazio's youth teams immediately after hanging up his boots. His first trophy as coach was the 2017 Italian Super Cup. 5 Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio Thursday 29 November 2018 - 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Match press kit GSP, Nicosia Team facts Apollon Limassol Formed: 1954 Nickname: Thrylos (Legend) UEFA club competition honours • None Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets) League title: 3 (2006) Cypriot Cup: 9 (2017) Ten-year record (UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup unless indicated otherwise) 2017/18: group stage 2016/17: third qualifying round 2015/16: third qualifying round 2014/15: group stage 2013/14: group stage 2012/13: did not take part in UEFA competition 2011/12: did not take part in UEFA competition 2010/11: third qualifying round 2009/10: did not take part in UEFA competition 2008/09: did not take part in UEFA competition Records UEFA club competition • Biggest home win 4-0 three times, most recently v Dinamo Brest 09/08/18, UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg • Biggest away win 1-4 twice, most recently v Lokomotiv Moskva 28/08/14, UEFA Europa League play-off second leg • Heaviest home defeat 0-4: Apollon v Győr 23/09/67, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round second leg • Heaviest away defeat 8-0 twice, most recently v Djurgården 29/06/96, UEFA Intertoto Cup group stage UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup • Biggest home win 4-0 three times, most recently v Dinamo Brest (see above) • Biggest away win 1-4 twice, most recently v Lokomotiv Moskva (see above) • Heaviest home defeat 0-3 three times, most recently v Everton 07/12/17, group stage • Heaviest away defeat 6-1: Bohemians Praha v Apollon 19/09/84, first round first leg 5-0: Borussia Mönchengladbach v Apollon 23/10/14, group stage SS Lazio Formed: 1900 Nickname: Biancocelesti (White and Sky Blues) UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets) • UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1999 • UEFA Cup: (1998) 6 Apollon Limassol FC - SS Lazio Thursday 29 November 2018 - 21.00CET (22.00 local time) Match press kit GSP, Nicosia • UEFA Super Cup (1):