Europa League

APOEL Nicosia 2 - Athletic Bilbao 0

APOEL: Waterman; Milanov, Merkis, Iñaki Astíz, Ioannou; Giannotas, Vinicius (Ebecilio 76’), Morais, Efrem (Vieira 71’); Barral (De Camargo 61’), Pieros Soteriou. 4-4-2.
Athletic: Iraizoz; De Marcos (Sabín 79’), Yeray, Etxeita (Iturraspe 70’), Balenziaga; San José, Beñat; Susaeta (Villalibre 57’), Raúl García, Muniain; Williams. 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
1-0. 46. Soteriou. Steered acrobatic shot past Iraizoz from Efrem cross.
2-0. 54. Giannotas (penalty). After Balenziaga fouled Gianniotas in area.

Yellow cards: Soteriou 43’, 65’, Raúl García 44’, De Marcos 53’, Ioannou 55’, Iturraspe 74’, 89’, De Camargo 87’, Iraizoz 93’ / red cards: Soteriou 65’, Iturraspe 89’.

Athletic Bilbao bowed out of this season’s Europa League after a humiliating 2-0 defeat in Cyprus! The Basque side were favourites to go through after a 3-2 win in the San Mamés stadium win a week ago. However without the injured Aduríz they were unable to convert any of the many chances they created, Williams in particular unable to beat Waterman on three or four occasions. Just a minute in to the second half Soteriou opened the scoring for the locals with an acrobatic shot from Efrem’s cross, and ten minutes later Gianniotas made it two from the penalty spot after he was pushed over by Balenziaga. Midway through the second half APOEL were left with ten men when Soteriou picked up a second booking, but even so Waterman was hardly troubled, and numbers were evened up when Iturraspe was also shown a second yellow card with a couple of minutes to go.