CYPRUS: Cypriot teams break Europa League records and bring home the cash

Cyprus football fans can be proud of their teams’ achievements in the Europa League group stage as not only did they beat bigger teams but broke a number of records, five to be exact.

AEK Larnaca and Apollon FC will also be happy over the money they have cashed in, with the two teams earning close to a combined EUR 9 mln from their European adventures.

Apollon Limassol’s 2-0 victory over Italy’s famous Lazio, was the first by a Cypriot team against an Italian side. Until now Cypriot teams had lost 19 out 25 games, while 6 ended in a draw.

AEK’s 2-1 win over FC Zurich was their first away win in the Europa group stage, with Ivan Triskovski scoring his 8^th goal in the competition this year, one more than record holder for a Cypriot team, APOEL’s Ailton Almeida.

The APOEL legend had scored 7 goals in the Champions league of 2011/12 when APOEL pulled off the feat of reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament.

With AEK and Apollon’s wins, Cypriot teams have scored an all-time record of a total of 54 goals, one more than Cypriot teams scored last year in the European tournaments.

Apart from setting records, the two Cypriot teams bagged around EUR 4.5 mln each from their participation in the Europe this year.

AEK brought home EUR 4.395 mln, with EUR 2.9 mln being the bonus for reaching the group stage. Just the win over Zurich brought AEK EUR 470,000, while the two draws with Bulgarian side Ludogorets brought them another EUR 380,000.

Apollon Limassol bagged EUR 50,000 more, bringing home EUR 4.4 mln, as the team had played an extra preliminary round. Apart from the bonus for reaching the group stage, also bagged another EUR 760,000 for their win over Lazio and draw with French side Marseille.