Europa League Scouting Report: Apollon Limassol

Hailing from Cyprus is the least heralded member of Everton’s Europa League group, Apollon Limassol. Founded in 1954, their fans call them Thrylos, or legend. Their crest includes the Greek deity Apollo, god of the Sun. They play in a 13,000 seat stadium, which looks something like this at full tilt:

Apollons Gate 1 is the name of the Ultras group seen in the video above, and fair play, I’m impressed. This won’t be a simple island visit to a sparsely attended venue where we play some youths, catch our breaths, and move on - they’ll require Everton’s real attention.

Apollon is the weakest team in this group, which means slip ups against them by any of the big league teams will prove costly. They got here by beating FC Midtjylland, a Danish power who is one slot behind Hull City in UEFA coefficient rankings.

A good way to think about Apollon is the way you think about an early league cup game. If you show up and operate in a workmanlike fashion, there should be no issue, if you don’t, well, you’ll spend less time in a competition than you’d like.