Women's Champions League: introducing the opponent
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Very soon the women's team of "Dinamo-Minsk" will make its debut in the UEFA Champions League. And today we are introducing our opponents.
In the first round of the Path of Champions, Yury Maleeu's team got into the Group 6 and in the 1/2 finals (August 18) will play against the Cypriot "Apollo". Another pair of the quartet is CSKA (Moscow, Russia) and Swansea (Wales). The match for third place and the final will take place on August 21. Only the winner of the group will receive a ticket to the second round.
Our rival in the first qualifying round is the Cypriot team "Apollon Ladies". It was founded in 2007. At the moment, "Apollo Ladies" is the leading team in the country and the 12-time champion of Cyprus. The team is ranked 37th in the UEFA club rankings for 2020/2021.
The head coach of the team is the Swedish specialist Kim Bjorkegren, who last season received the Coach of the Year award for high achievements with his players in the national championship.
In the 2020/2021 season, the Cypriots took first place in the championship, having played only one match in a draw with the team on the second line of the standings - "Nea Salamina". By the way, "Apollo" is the team which scores the most in the Cyprus championship: 113 goals were scored in 22 matches, and only 8 conceded.
In the last five matches in various tournaments, the team won three victories: "Omonia" was beaten both at home (10:1) and away (0:4); there was one draw in the away match against "Nea Salamina" (2:2) in the championship, but in the home match the girls still managed to beat this opponent with a score of 2:1; the team was also defeated in the Cyprus Cup, where it lost to Omonia on penalties (4: 3). It should be noted that the Cypriot season ended at the end of April. Since then, "Apollo Ladies" have not played official matches.
As for the performances in the UEFA Women's Champions League, the team was also noticeable: in the season 2010/2011, the girls sensationally beat the Swedish club "Umeo IK", which is a two-time winner and three-time UEFA Cup finalist, and reached the 1/32 finals. Last season, the "Swansea" club was beaten in the first round (3:0), but the Polish club "Gornik Lenchna" did not let the team go further in the tournament. The champion of Cyprus lost in the match with a score of 2:1. This is where Apollo Ladies finished their performance in European competition.
The champion from Cyprus has never played with teams from Belarus: the upcoming match, which will take place on August 18 at 16:30 at the stadium "Tsirion" (Limassol, Cyprus), will be the first chapter in the history of women's football competitions between Belarusians and Cypriots.
Photo source: Facebook "Apollon Ladies F.C"