Anorthosis FC Famagusta has been drawn against Belarus team FC Dinamo Minsk for the 1st qualification round of Champions League. Dinamo is currently 12th out of the 14 teams in the Belarus League and is pretty much an easy team to face. However the interesting part is that in case Anorthosis passes then the next opponent in the 2nd round is the Turkish League runner up team Trabzonspor.
The potential of a meeting with Trabzonspor of Turkey has fired the imagination of Andreas Pantelis, the chairman of Cypriot club FC Anorthosis Famagusta, but first they must overcome Belarus side FC Dinamo Minsk. He said: "If we qualify, then that will be a very unique occasion for the club." Trabzonspor defender Emrah Eren said: "We are stronger than both so hopefully we will advance."
It should be noted here that the last time a cypriot team had to face a Turkish team was in 1986-87 when APOEL was drawn against Beshictas.However as a result of a denial by APOEL to travel to Turkey the game resulted to UEFA giving the pass to the Turkish team. I dont know if this game will have the same fade as the previous one but it will definitely attract thousands of GCs to the game which will be most probably held in GSP Nicosia with a capacity of 25000 funs.
APOEL FC Nicosia and OMONOIA FC Nicosia will face Bikirkara Malta and Hibernians Malta respectively for the UEFA Cup. The Cypriot teams are relatively stronger than the Malteze teams and it should not be a tough obstacle for them to pass to the next round.