Cyprus round-up: Olympiakos dent APOEL lead

Cypriot champions and league leaders APOEL Nicosia FC dropped two points in their 1-1 draw away to Ethnikos Achnas FC to allow their title rivals to reduce the gap at the top.

Second-half thriller
Achnas opened the scoring on 56 minutes when Cameroonian striker Nicholas Dikoume broke free and fed Christos Poyiatzis, who put his side ahead. The equaliser came when Konstantinos Charalambides took advantage of a slip from from Achnas's Yugoslavian keeper Aleksandar Kocic, but APOEL were unable to find a winner.

Late scare
Second-placed Olympiakos Nicosia FC were given a late scare by Enosis Neon Paralimni FC but still secured a 3-2 victory to go level with APOEL on 23 points. Nicos Andronicous's side took a comfortable lead with goals from Slovakian international Josef Kozlej - on target twice - and Michalis Christophi. Enosis rallied through Goran Petkovski and Cypriot Under-21 international Georgos Nicolaou, but Olympiakos held on.

Goals rain in
Fourth-placed Omonia Nicosia FC also took full advantage of APOEL's draw as they despatched Nea Salamis FC 4-0 at the GSP stadium, Rainer Marcos Rauffmann securing a hat-trick to go top of the scoring charts with 13 goals.

Neophytou the difference
Anorthosis Famagusta FC - who hope to overturn a 2-1 deficit at home to Portuguese side Boavista FC in the UEFA Cup second round next week - also took three points with a 1-0 win against Dighenis Morphou FC in Paralimni. Top scorer Marios Neophytou's 28th minute penalty was enough to keep his side in touch with the league leaders.

AEL on the up
Elsewhere, Aris Limassol FC beat AEP Paphos FC 4-2 and ten-men AEL Limassol FC continued their recovering league form with a solid 3-1 victory at Alki Larnaca FC to go fifth.