Copenhagen Post
FCK Flops
A team from football minnow Cyprus destroys Danish champion’s 100 million kroner European dream
FC Copenhagen’s Champions League dream came crashing down last night, as it dropped the second leg of its matchup with Nicosia Apoel FC.
FCK lost 3-1 to the team from Cyprus to lose 3-2 on aggregate, and is out of the tournament.
Playing in front of a raucous Cypriot crowd, FCK was made to look second-rate in a game it was expected to cruise through on its way to the tournament’s group stage.
FCK’s defence was decidedly flat, with the usually reliable Zdenek Pospech and Oscar Wendt playing their worst matches in recent memory. Mikael Antonsson continued to have his problems cooperating with the other defenders.
The 19-year-old Mathias Zanka Jørgensen was the only one to justify his place in the starting back four but worked in vain to keep the Apoel forwards away from goalkeeper Jesper Christiansen.
The Cypriots wasted no time in informing the visitors that they were in for a dogfight, scoring a minute and a half into the match. Then Pospech committed a terrible foul in the box, taking down Marios Elia in the 18th minute for a penalty kick that the home team converted to take a 2-0 lead.
Dame N’Doye played a solid match for FCK, scoring in the 22nd minute to cut the lead in half. But a goal to Chrysostomos Michail before halftime gave Apoel a 3-1 lead. A scoreless second half sealed FCK’s fate.
‘There’s no question this is my biggest disappointment ever as a head coach,’ Ståle Solbakken told B.T. newspaper after the match. ‘But when it comes down to it, it’s my responsibility and I’m really, really sorry about the result.’
Team owner Flemming Østergaard was on hand to watch a probable 100 million-plus kroner payoff from group play qualification go down the drain.
‘I’m extremely disappointed. We were very weak and never in the game,’ he said.
FCK is, however, still alive in European competition, as the loss sends it directly to the Europa Cup competition’s group round.
‘Now we have to wish OB and Brøndby good luck so we can get three teams in the Europa Cup group play,’ said Østergard.
Odense and Brøndby play their second leg Europa Cup matches tonight against Genoa and Hertha Berlin, respectively.
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