Cyprus national under-21 football team

Cyprus U21
Nickname(s)	Εθνική Ελπίδων ; ("National team of Hopes")
Association	Cyprus Football Association
Head coach	Vacant
Captain	Andreas Frangos
Most caps	Marios Christodoulou (27)
Top scorer	Christos Poyiatzis & Giorgos Nicolaou (5)
Home stadium	AEK Arena - Georgios Karapatakis
First colours	Second colours
First international
	Cyprus 0 - 0 Spain ; (Nicosia, Cyprus; 1978)
Biggest win
	Cyprus 6 - 0 San Marino ; (Nicosia, Cyprus; 2011)
Biggest defeat
	France 9 - 0 Cyprus ; (Grenoble, France; 2023)
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	None

The Cyprus national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team for Cyprus. It is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association.

The team drew their first official match 0–0 in 1978 at home to Spain in a qualifying match for the 1980 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. They then drew 0–0 with the trophy holders Yugoslavia, also at home. They lost both away games though. And finished last in the group of three teams, with two points from four games, and so did not qualify for the Finals.

In the qualifying stages for the 1982 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, Cyprus made history when they defeated France 2–1 in Cyprus as it was the countries first ever official victory at National or Under-21 football level. The scorer of the Cypriot goals was Islington born Kikis Kyriacou of Olympiakos Nicosia whose promising career was brought to a premature end following a horrific leg injury.

In the qualifying stages for the 1992 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, the team beat Greece 1-0 and drew 1–1 with Sweden who went on to reach the Final. Cyprus finished last in their qualifying group with three points, the same number as Greece.

The Under 21 team made gradual improvements and in September 1999, in a qualifying match for the 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, drew 1–1 in Spain, the eventual winners of the competition. The team finished fourth out of five teams in their qualifying group, ahead of Austria.

The qualifying stages for the 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship provided the greatest achievement for the Cyprus under-21 national team to date, when they finished second in Qualification Group One, with 15 points, winning five of their eight matches. France won the group with 22 points, seven points ahead of Cyprus.

In 2004, Cyprus joined the European Union, and Cypriot teams took advantage of the Bosman rule bringing in foreign players. This has meant that young Cypriot players are now not as common in the Cypriot First Division and is therefore also having an adverse effect on the under-21 national team.

European Championship record Under-21

UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship record									UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship Qualification record
Year	Round	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1978	did not enter								-
1980^[1]	did not qualify								4	0	2	2	1	5	−4
1982^[2]									4	1	0	3	4	7	−3
1984^[3]									6	0	0	6	4	14	−10
1986^[4]									6	0	2	4	3	13	-10
1988^[5]									6	1	0	5	4	18	−14
1990^[6]									4	0	1	3	0	3	−3
1992^[7]									6	1	1	4	3	15	−12
1994^[8]									8	0	0	8	4	21	−17
1996^[9]									10	3	1	6	10	25	−15
1998^[10]									8	3	1	4	16	15	+1
2000^[11]									8	1	3	4	7	18	−11
2002^[12]									8	3	0	5	9	17	−8
2004^[13]									8	5	0	3	12	5	+7
2006^[14]									8	0	1	7	2	17	-15
2007^[15]									2	0	0	2	0	3	−3
2009^[16]									8	2	0	6	9	15	−6
2011^[17]									8	2	0	6	8	13	−5
2013^[18]									10	4	0	6	16	20	−4
2015^[19]									8	2	0	6	7	21	−14
2017									5	0	1	4	2	12	−10
2019	Qualification in progress								8	2	0	6	7	18	-11
Total	0/21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	139	32	19	99	132	286	−154

UEFA U-21 Euro 2019 qualification

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	10	8	2	0	23	5	+18	26	Final tournament	—	1–1	0–0	3–0	3–2	2–1
2	Sweden	10	6	2	2	19	8	+11	20		0–3	—	0–1	1–0	4–1	3–0
3	Turkey	10	5	2	3	14	10	+4	17		1–2	0–3	—	0–0	4–0	4–2
4	Hungary	10	3	2	5	12	14	−2	11		0–3	2–2	1–2	—	4–0	2–1
5	Cyprus	10	2	1	7	8	23	−15	7		0–2	0–1	2–1	0–2	—	2–1
6	Malta	10	1	1	8	8	24	−16	4		0–4	0–4	0–1	2–1	1–1	—

Source: UEFA

1 September 2017 (2017-09-01)	Cyprus	2–1	Malta	AEK Arena, Larnaca
18:00	Anastasiou 41' Iosifidis 90+3'	Report	Borg 34'	Referee: Stefan Apostolov (Bulgaria)

5 September 2017 (2017-09-05)	Sweden	4–1	Cyprus	Falkenbergs IP, Falkenberg
18:45	Strandberg 3', 5', 38' Rakip 90+1'	Report	Elia 90+3'	Referee: Omar Pashayev (Azerbaijan)

5 October 2017 (2017-10-05)	Cyprus	2–1	Turkey	AEK Arena, Larnaca
16:00	Karo 53' Soteriou 58'	Report	Çınar 41'	Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

10 October 2017 (2017-10-10)	Cyprus	0–2	Belgium	AEK Arena, Larnaca
16:00		Report	Lukebakio 51' Bastien 90+3'	Referee: Kirill Levnikov (Russia)

9 November 2017 (2017-11-09)	Belgium	3–2	Cyprus	Den Dreef, Leuven
20:00	Mbenza 15' Dimata 45+2' Leya Iseka 90+2'	Report	Papageorgiou 49' Frangos 75'	Referee: Enea Jorgji (Albania)

14 November 2017 (2017-11-14)	Cyprus	0–2	Hungary	AEK Arena, Larnaca
15:00		Report	Sallói 50' Haris 80'	Referee: Horatiu Fesnic (Romania)

22 March 2018 (2018-03-22)	Hungary	4–0	Cyprus	Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion, Budapest
20:00	Bíró 8' Szalai 23' Kyriakou 49' (o.g.) Zsótér 75'	Report		Referee: Rob Harvey (Republic of Ireland)

27 March 2018 (2018-03-27)	Cyprus	0–1	Sweden	AEK Arena, Larnaca
14:00		Report	Brorsson 90+7'	Referee: Fabio Verissimo (Portugal)

7 September 2018 (2018-09-07)	Turkey	4–0	Cyprus	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Istanbul
18:00 (19:00 TRT)	Demirbağ 3' Çınar 76', 81' (pen.) Hadjipaschalis 88' (o.g.)	Report		Referee: Danilo Grujić (Serbia)

16 October 2018 (2018-10-16)	Malta	1–1	Cyprus	Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali
17:00	Nwoko 90+2'	Report	Wheeler 35'	Referee: Admir Šehović (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Friendly matches

20 May 2018	Russia	3–0	Cyprus	Eduard Streltsov Stadium, Moscow, Russia
14:00 UTC+2	Oblyakov 72' Melkadze 82' Makarov 84'	Report		Referee: Vitali Meshkov (Russia)

Coaching staff

Position^[20]	Name
Coach	Nikos Andronikou
Assistant coach	Venizelos Tziambazis
Goalkeeper coach	Christoforos Loizou
Fitness coach	Constantinos Rostantis

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the friendly match against Georgia on 15 June 2023.^[21]

Caps and goals correct as of 28 March 2023, after the match against Hungary.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1GK	Stefanos Kittos	(2002-02-23) 23 February 2002 (age 22)	10	0	PO Xylotymbou
1GK	Michalis Kyriakou	(2002-12-30) 30 December 2002 (age 21)	4	0	AEL Limassol
1GK	Theodoros Koutsou	(2004-04-19) 19 April 2004 (age 20)	0	0	Enosis Neon Paralimni

2DF	Evagoras Antoniou	(2002-11-04) 4 November 2002 (age 22)	5	0	Panathinaikos
2DF	Strahinja Kerkez	(2002-12-13) 13 December 2002 (age 22)	4	0	Trenčín
2DF	Irodotos Christodoulou	(2002-05-01) 1 May 2002 (age 22)	3	0	Vysočina Jihlava
2DF	Fotis Kotsonis	(2003-02-10) 10 February 2003 (age 21)	3	0	Enosis Neon Paralimni
2DF	Nikolas Chatzimitsis	(2003-09-10) 10 September 2003 (age 21)	2	0	Olympiakos Nicosia
2DF	Ilias Kostis	(2003-02-27) 27 February 2003 (age 21)	1	0	Atlético Madrid
2DF	David Djamas	(2004-04-21) 21 April 2004 (age 20)	0	0	APOEL
2DF	Andreas Evangelou	(2004-09-20) 20 September 2004 (age 20)	0	0	PAEEK
2DF	Konstantinos Venizelou	(2004-07-05) 5 July 2004 (age 20)	0	0	Omonia

3MF	Antonio Foti	(2003-11-03) 3 November 2003 (age 21)	2	0	Hannover 96
3MF	Dimitris Mavroudis	(2002-05-03) 3 May 2002 (age 22)	2	0	Enosis Neon Paralimni
3MF	Giorgos Pavlidis	(2003-01-08) 8 January 2003 (age 21)	1	0	Doxa Katokopias
3MF	Konstantinos Christou	(2003-04-19) 19 April 2003 (age 21)	0	0	MEAP Nisou
3MF	Konstanitnos Koumpari	(2002-04-04) 4 April 2002 (age 22)	0	0	Omonia Aradippou
3MF	Stylianos Vrontis	(2004-11-05) 5 November 2004 (age 20)	0	0	PO Xylotymbou

4FW	Stavros Gavriel	(2002-01-29) 29 January 2002 (age 22)	10	2	Akritas Chlorakas
4FW	Nikolas Koutsakos	(2003-11-14) 14 November 2003 (age 21)	3	3	Ethnikos Achna
4FW	Evangelos Andreou	(2002-09-24) 24 September 2002 (age 22)	3	0	AEL Limassol
4FW	Giorgos Pontikou	(2003-01-08) 8 January 2003 (age 21)	1	0	Apollon Limassol
4FW	Pantelis Gavriel	(2004-01-07) 7 January 2004 (age 20)	0	0	Enosis Neon Paralimni
4FW	Stavros Georgiou	(2004-10-19) 19 October 2004 (age 20)	0	0	APOEL
4FW	Zanos Savva	(2005-11-26) 26 November 2005 (age 19)	0	0	Torino

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up for Cyprus under-21's within the last twelve months and remain eligible for selection.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Konstantinos Chrysostomou	(2003-01-07) 7 January 2003 (age 21)	0	0	Aris Limassol	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
GK	Andreas Chatzigavriil	(2002-02-22) 22 February 2002 (age 22)	0	0	Omonia Aradippou	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022

DF	Sergios Feneridis	(2004-03-03) 3 March 2004 (age 20)	0	0	MEAP Nisou	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
DF	Kypros Neofytou	(2002-08-13) 13 August 2002 (age 22)	0	0	AEL Limassol	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
DF	Giorgos Vasiliou	(2002-03-15) 15 March 2002 (age 22)	1	0	Akritas Chlorakas	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022
DF	Loukas Kalogirou	(2002-02-21) 21 February 2002 (age 22)	0	0	Ethnikos Achna	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022

MF	Giannis Satsias	(2002-12-28) 28 December 2002 (age 21)	6	0	APOEL	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
MF	Georgios Okkas	(2003-10-24) 24 October 2003 (age 21)	5	0	Fulham	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
MF	Marios Kokkinoftas	(2003-03-15) 15 March 2003 (age 21)	0	0	Olympias Lympion	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
MF	Charalambos Charalambous	(2002-04-04) 4 April 2002 (age 22)	5	1	Omonia	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022
MF	Filippos Eftichidis	(2002-02-26) 26 February 2002 (age 22)	3	0	Olympiakos Nicosia	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022
MF	Tayt-Lemar Trusty	(2003-11-23) 23 November 2003 (age 21)	0	0	Blackpool	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022

FW	Andreas Savva	(2004-07-21) 21 July 2004 (age 20)	0	0	Omonia	v. Hungary, 28 March 2023
FW	Marko Jovanovic	(2002-06-27) 27 June 2002 (age 22)	1	0	Peyia 2014	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022
FW	Angelos Zefki	(2003-04-15) 15 April 2003 (age 21)	1	0	Olympiakos Nicosia	v. Serbia, 20 November 2022

References

^ Europe U-21 Championship 1980
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1982
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1984
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1986
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1988
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1990
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1992
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1994
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1996
^ Europe U-21 Championship 1998
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2000
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2002
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2004
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2006
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2007
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2009
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2011
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2013
^ Europe U-21 Championship 2015
^ "Cyprus U21 staff". Cyprus FA. Archived from the original on 2017-06-06. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
^ "Την ερχόμενη Τρίτη αρχίζει η προετοιμασία" (in Greek). Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Ποδοσφαίρου. 31 May 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2023.

External links

[1] Europe U-21 Championship 1980

[2] Europe U-21 Championship 1982

[3] Europe U-21 Championship 1984

[4] Europe U-21 Championship 1986

[5] Europe U-21 Championship 1988

[6] Europe U-21 Championship 1990

[7] Europe U-21 Championship 1992

[8] Europe U-21 Championship 1994

[9] Europe U-21 Championship 1996

[10] Europe U-21 Championship 1998

[11] Europe U-21 Championship 2000

[12] Europe U-21 Championship 2002

[13] Europe U-21 Championship 2004

[14] Europe U-21 Championship 2006

[15] Europe U-21 Championship 2007

[16] Europe U-21 Championship 2009

[17] Europe U-21 Championship 2011

[18] Europe U-21 Championship 2013

[19] Europe U-21 Championship 2015

[20] "Cyprus U21 staff". Cyprus FA. Archived from the original on 2017-06-06. Retrieved 2018-06-17.

[21] "Την ερχόμενη Τρίτη αρχίζει η προετοιμασία" (in Greek). Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Ποδοσφαίρου. 31 May 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2023.

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