Cork City will face Red Star Belgrade in the next round of the Champions League qualifiers after Damien Richardson's side survived a gruelling test in the Cypriot heat tonight.
Despite the match kicking-off at 9pm local time, the conditions clearly affected the Irish champions and Apollon, ineffectual at Turners Cross seven days ago, appeared a different proposition in front of their own fans.
Too often in the first-half Cork were hanging on, quite literally when Billy Woods was lucky to avoid a penalty after dragging his opponent to the floor at a corner, and offered precious little in the way of meaningful attacks.
Appollon finally made a deserved breakthrough five minutes after the break, Lukasz Sosin slotting the ball beyond Mick Devine to level the tie. And the Cypriots should have taken a 2-0 lead moments later when Alvarez contrived to send his header over with the goal at his mercy.
But Cork secured their passage in the 74th minute, skipper Dan Murray sending an unstoppable header past Chvalovsky in the Apollon goal.
Apollon Limassol: Chvalovsky, Alvarez, Barun, Merkis, Radoskaw, Andone, Mahdi, Hugo, Arig, Sosin, Paiva. Subs: Sofronis, Duarte, Panagi, Moustakas, Hamadi, Hawar, Solomou.
Cork City: Devine, Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy, O'Donovan, O'Brien, Gamble, Woods, Fenn, Behan. Subs: McCarthy, Brian O'Callaghan, Cillian Lordan, Cathal Lordan, Softic, McNulty.
