The solid campaign of APOEL in the Champions League group stages continued with an impressive 1:1 draw against the defending Portuguese champions Porto.
Porto is also the defending Europa League champions so this was a good result for APOEL to win a point on the road. Ivan Trickovski started on the left wing for APOEL and played until the second minute of stoppage time in the 90th minute when he was replaced by fellow attacker Aldo Adorno.
Trickovski did not have any quality chances to score but to be fair, he was asked to drop back from his position and help out on defense. APOEL played defensive and organized football which seemed to frustrate Porto. The Portuguese side took the lead in the 13th minute from a long range free kick by Hulk whose effort was misplayed by the APOEL keeper who conceded a soft goal. Six minutes later, APOEL scored the equalizer through Brazilian Ailton Almeida whose well located shot from outside of the area went to the bottom left corner past the diving Porto keeper.
The referee handed out an incredible 11 yellow cards between the two teams. One of those yellow cards went to Trickovski in the 47th minute for diving. Ivan was anticipating contact and fell down but the referee was not buying it and immediately showed him a yellow card. Trickovski also won numerous fouls on the left side in a physical game as he seemed exhausted following his substitution. Despite Porto controlling possession and attempting considerably more shots, APOEL almost scored the late game winner when Adorno’s shot from close range was saved nicely by the opposing keeper and it went for a corner. The chance by Adorno came seconds after he substituted Trickovski in the second minute of stoppage time in the 90th minute.
With today’s draw, APOEL remains in first place of Group G. APOEL now has 5 points after three games, Porto and Zenit are tied for second place with 4 points apiece, while Shakhtar Donetsk is in last place with 2 points.