SOCCER/Champions League, Apollon Limassol 1 Cork City 2 (Cork win 2-1 agg): Ireland may have provided a lacklustre display at Nicosia's national stadium back in October, but Cork City produced a performance of passion and quality last night to advance to the second round of the Champions League with an aggregate win over Cypriot Champions Apollon Limassol.
Billy Woods was the hero of seven days ago and it was the turn of captain Dan Murray to step up to the plate last night, as his 76th-minute header cancelled out Lukasz Sosin's opener and sent the travelling Rebel Army into delirium and on to a date with the former European champions Red Star Belgrade.
Murray's bullet header was directed into the net from a corner from another towering presence on the night, Neale Fenn, and that left the home side needing to score twice more to go through, something they never looked like doing.
The heat may have been significantly less oppressive than earlier in the day, but the temperature at the GSP Stadium was raised by the fervour of the fanatical home crowd. Teams can be understandably rattled by such a reception, and Cork certainly looked nervous as the game opened at a scorching pace. Captain Sosin was again pulling the strings for the Cypriots, but it was his colleague Machado who forced the first roar of appreciation inside 10 minutes. Michael Devine was equal to his 30-yard piledriver, however, and that would prove to be a theme of the opening half as the Cork shot-stopper managed a string a fine stops.
The visitors had their opportunities too, but Roy O'Donovan and Denis Behan missed gilt-edged chances when found by Fenn and Woods respectively.
That period of dominance came halfway through the half and that was as good as it got for the Leesiders, as Devine would feature prominently in the closing stages.
Firstly he turned a 25-yard volley around his upright after the ball had broken to Radoslaw Michalski. He then produced an even better stop to deny Machado again.
Cork needed to get their foot on the ball after the interval, but instead it was Sosin who was running the show with deft touches.
He put in his strike partner, the Portuguese Paiva, four minutes in, but the pacy striker was unable to apply the finish. But Sosin showed his finishing ability a minute later, when he latched onto a through ball from Andone and made no mistake with a low strike in off the post.
Apollon were now in the ascendancy, but Murray's header changed all that, though Devine was still forced into heroics before the end.
APOLLON: Chvalovsky; Alvarez, Michalski, Merkis; Ajeel, Machado (Solomou, 76), Arig, Andone, Barun (Hamadi, 76); Sosin, Paiva (Taher, 55).
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; Woods (Softic, 90), Gamble, O'Brien, O'Donovan; Behan, Fenn.
Referee: S Johannesson (Sweden).
