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Champions League
3rd Qualifying Round – 1st Leg
Omonia Nicosia vs. Red Bull Salzburg


Omonia has passed through with ease FK Renova (5-0 aggregate) for the 2nd qualifying round and now they are ready to face strong Austrian Champions Salzburg in GSP stadium in Nicosia.

I really like the way Omonia’s management worked this summer. The Cypriot Champions spotted the team’s weaknesses from last year and they made some superb (IMO) additions in the team.
Iago Buzon (27) – Huelva - Defense
Hose Manuel Roueda (22) - Barcelona B’ - Midfield
Victor Espasatin (25) – Barcelona B’ – Left Back
Yuval Spungin (23) – Maccambi Tel Aviv – Right Back
Lomana LuaLua (29) – Olympiakos Pireaus – Forward

With these additions, Omonia has definitely changed a gear from last year. Some of these newcomers will bring experience and more speed to the team and Omonia is a fast team already. Efraim, Aloneftis, Christofi, Davidson and Makrides are among the fastest players in the League.

I have to admit I have never seen in the Cypriot League (I have been watching for 30 years now) a more completed team in Cyprus. Even stronger than last year’s Apoel that surprised everyone in the CL group stage! All lines are strong and more important, is the fact that there are many great players coming off the bench.

The probable starting lineup should be: Giorgalides – Davidson, Spoungin, Bouzon, Charalambous – Kaseke, Leandro(!), Makrides – Aloneftis, Efrem – Konstantinou. Coach Lemonis is playing 4-3-2-1 formation.

Salzburg had made quite a few changes from last year. Superstar Marc Janco left them for Twente. There are 10 new players in the team so far with their newest addition 2 days ago, Joaquin Boghossian from Uruguay. I watched the last 2 games of Salzburg (the League opener vs. Kapfenberg, 0-0 and the game away to HB Torshavn, lost 1-0!) and I was not satisfied with their game. They did not really seem like the team from last year. Their game has no discipline and they are fairly slow. However, they have great players in their team like Nigerian National Afolabi, Ibrahim Sekagya in the defense and so many others. This is a 40, 000, 000 Euro roster and Coach Huub Stevens has to prepare his players for this significant game. He could not use important Simon Cziommer because of injury while very important defender Mendes da Silva is in great danger of missing this game (ankle).

I have to go with Omonia for this match. The team has never been better since I remember. Even though they are playing with a stronger team, Omonia has great chance of winning in Nicosia. The price is fairly high and Bwin is offering 2. 75 for the home win. I will be supporting the home win along with 21000 “greens”. This is an early game and temperature is too high at this time of the year in the Island.

GL!

23/07/2010 23:55, read 3371 times