The coach of the Greek club made a great noise in the Champions League with the Cypriot APOEL
On July 23, 2023, Dnepr-1 coach Oleksandr Kucher will make his debut in the Champions League as a head coach with a match against Panathinaikos. His counterpart, Serbian specialist Ivan Jovanovic, is much more experienced: in the most prestigious club tournament in Europe, he played 30 matches as a coach. The Serb also crossed paths with Kucher, however, then the current helmsman of Dnepr-1 was a Shakhtar player, and Yovanovitch led the Cypriot APOEL, with whom he made a great noise in the Champions League, reaching the quarterfinals.
While the score is in favor of Kucher
A historical football year for APOEL, which is modest by European standards, as well as the meeting between Kucher and Jovanovic, took place in the 2011/2012 season. The Cypriot club, having passed three rounds (!) of qualification, during which they knocked Skenderbeu, Slovan and Wisla out of the fight, landed in one quartet with Shakhtar, zenith and Porto. It was APOEL, despite the fact that two years earlier also played in the Champions League group, having managed to take three points in the company with Atlético, Chelsea and Porto (two draws with Mattresses, an away world match in the last round with Chelsea), was considered an outsider of the group. And in the end, he finished first in the quartet, scoring an equal number of points with the zenith – nine each, but ahead of the Russians in terms of personal indicators (victory and defeat). Shakhtar also finished fourth.
The Pitmen scored five points in six matches, four of which came in two matches against APOEL. In both matches, Donetsk team’s central defender Oleksandr Kucher played 90 minutes each. The game in Donetsk ended in a draw – the Cypriots responded to Jadson’s goal with an accurate shot by Trichkovsky three minutes later. In Nicosia, the Pitmen got the win thanks to goals from Seleznev and Luis Adriano. Another point in the group stage was brought to Shakhtar by a home draw with Zenit. For APOEL, the defeat from the Pitmen was the first in the group, before that, Jovanovic’s team, in addition to the already mentioned draw with Shakhtar, took four points in duels with Porto and the zenith.
sensational season
Further more: leaving the group from the first place, APOEL in the 1/8 finals knocked out the top Lyon with Lacazette, Gomis, Lopez and Kellstrom in the roster. Having lost 0:1 in France, the Cypriots won at home with the same score, and then they performed better on penalties.
But in the quarterfinals against Real Madrid, the Cypriot club had no chance: 0:3 in the home match, 2:5 in the away game.
Jovanovic experience
By the way, the specialist headed APOEL twice – in the period from 2003 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2013. During this time, the Serb led the team to the league title four times and played in the Champions League qualification three times. As mentioned above, two attempts were successful.
The only time Jovanovic failed to overcome the selection was the 2004/2005 season. Then, in the second round of qualification, APOEL got Sparta Prague, and the Cypriot club looked worthy. In the first match, Jovanovic’s team won 2:0 until the 82nd minute, but eventually ended the meeting in a draw – 2:2. In response, she lost 1:2. But in the 2009/2010 season, APOEL knocked Partizan and Copenhagen out of the fight during the qualification.
Panathinaikos is the second club for Jovanovic to play in the Champions League. In general, the statistics of the Serb in the tournament is still a draw: 11 wins (three in the main round), 8 draws (six in the main round) and 11 losses (seven in the main round). The Serbian coach has no doubts about the victory of his team over Dnepr-1. But, I think, Kucher and the players of the Ukrainian club have a different opinion on this matter.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
