Emotions run high for Anorthosis heroes
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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A sense of euphoria settled over Anorthosis Famagusta FC on Wednesday night after they became the first side from Cyprus to taste victory in the UEFA Champions League group stage, defeating Panathinaikos FC 3-1.
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Independence day
Facing Greek outfit Panathinaikos FC in Nicosia, Anorthosis moved level with FC Internazionale Milano at the top of Group B on four points after efforts from Siniša Dobrašinović and Hawar Taher added to José Sarriegi's own goal to seal a 3-1 win. The result coincided with the island's independence day and Serbian midfielder Dobrašinović, making his competition debut, spoke afterwards of living a dream.
Dream experience
"To be honest, I never believed we would be where we are right now," he told uefa.com. "The whole experience so far has been a dream for us, but we believed and we must now work towards keeping the dream alive. We have players of quality in the side who are experienced at this level and that's something which has gone a long way towards explaining why we are here today."
Inter tests
Despite the result, Dobrašinović is under no illusion as to what lies ahead for his team, with Anorthosis now scheduled for back-to-back matches against Inter. "Inter are obviously the favourites – we mustn't forget that we're talking about a massive club who are one of the competition favourites," he said. "But we also believe in ourselves and we owe it to ourselves to make sure we give our all in our next two games against them."
Beqaj caution
Another player refusing to get carried away is Albanian goalkeeper Arian Beqaj, whose saves in qualifying went a long way towards ensuring Anorthosis's group-stage ticket. "This is a very important win for us and our thoughts are now firmly on our upcoming matches," he said. "But we only have four points and there are another four games to go. Our first aim is to finish third in the group so we can carry on in Europe. We need to continue the good work."
Unity required
Summer signing Cédric Bardon added that Anorthosis will need to keep their wits about them even more when they take on José Mourinho's Serie A giants in their next two matches. "We still need to be smart," he explained. "We have two very tough games against Inter and we will need to be focused, give everything and play as a team."
