Bulgarian striker Georgi Minchev did not stop scoring in Cyprus. He finished the championship with a total of nine goals, but did not miss to register twice for the success of his team AEL (Limasol) with 4:3 over Karmiotissa (Pano Polemidia). The meeting of the 14th round of the second playoff group of the Cypriot championship was the last for both teams, BTA reports.
AEL ends the season in 8th place in the championship with 54 points, while Karmiotis – a team from the suburbs of Limassol, is just above the last three relegated teams with 40.
The guests from Karmiotissa opened the scoring in the 23rd minute through Abubakar Doumbia – 0:1. But Georgi Minchev turned the tide of the game with two headed goals. He equalized in the 27th, after taking a corner and a through ball from Andreas Makris, he found himself alone at the back post and made no mistake. Five minutes later, he scored another goal, this time finishing an attack and cross from the right by Christoforos Francis – 2:1.
After the break, the score swelled to 4-1 with goals from Slobodan Medojević and Mendes Moreira, but at 2-1, Karmiotissa's side missed a penalty and also an excellent opportunity to make it 2-2 from a free kick. At the end of the match, Karmiotis reduced the score to 3:4 with goals in the 82nd and 96th minutes.
Minchev, who spent the whole match on the field, did not stop fighting in the second half, looking for a hat trick. In the 80th minute, he could have made it 5:1, but his technical performance from the arc miraculously licked the post from the outside and went out. The Ruse-born Taran arrived in Cyprus in the middle of the season from Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) and is currently the second highest-scoring Bulgarian abroad after Kiril Despodov.
In the other match, Doxa (Katokopia) defeated Etnikos (Ahna) with 6:3. The Bulgarian defender Dimitar Velkovski played strongly for the hosts from Nicosia, who, however, are relegated to the second division. Adil Nabi and Berat Sadiq scored two goals each for Doxa.
On Sunday are the last three matches of the championship, as APOEL - with the Bulgarian midfielder Georgi Kostadinov - and AEK (Larnaka) meet in a direct clash for the title at the GSP stadium in Nicosia.