By Nassos Stylianou

You would expect APOEL coach Ivan Jovanovic to be delighted at the return of the Champions League on Tuesday. The Cypriot team is preparing for what is undoubtedly the biggest game in its history against Lyon and has already achieved more than anyone expected of the smallest club still in the competition.

However, in what is APOEL’s most successful season to date, it may come as a surprise that the return of the Champions League will provide a welcome shift of focus from criticism Jovanovic’s side has faced at home in recent weeks.

As the 21-times Cypriot champions travel to France, they sit in 2nd place in the Cypriot First Division, just a point from leaders AEL.

For a team that has enjoyed such an exceptional run in the Champions League and qualified first from a group containing Porto, Zenit St Petersburg and Shakhtar Donetsk, to be able to maintain a strong title challenge seems a remarkable achievement.

However, APOEL’s performances since its historic qualification to the Champions League knockout phase have told a rather different story.

The Nicosia club has struggled domestically this season. They have already dropped more points than last season in the league (measured before the playoff round) and have games against their two big title rivals coming up.

In theory, this should neither be a cause for concern nor come as a surprise given the impact their European campaign was expected to have on their domestic obligations. The paradox is that APOEL’s bad spell has come after the start of the new year, when the Champions League is on its winter hibernation.

Jovanovic’s side have failed to win in half of their six league games since the Christmas break, losing to Alki and drawing at home against Olympiakos Nicosia, sides that the big teams in Cyprus do not traditionally struggle against. Had it not been for the repeated inconsistencies of their biggest rivals Omonia Nicosia, APOEL could have been much further behind in the title race.

The Serbian coach has developed a reputation as being very loyal to his players and has defended them staunchly in the past. Recently however, he has not hesitated to blame them for their poor performances, citing the inability to create chances as the team’s biggest problem and describing his team’s play as “lacking substance” on a number of occasions.

In the last few weeks the local press has also been fiercely critical of the club that has given them so much to fill the back pages with in the last three seasons and has cemented Cyprus’ place on the European football map. The focus of their critique has been especially targeted at APOEL’s failure to sign a creative forward able to offer something different to a rather one-dimensional side, despite the availability of funds.

This has also frustrated a number of fans, bemused at the lack of action in last month’s transfer window. Supporters took to online message boards and phone-ins to accuse the club management of lacking ambition and foresight after they stayed up all night on the 31st of January waiting to receive a text message from the club announcing a new signing, only to go to bed disappointed.

An embittered Jovanovic took personal offence to all this, using his first press conference of February to launch a tirade at those who he perceived to lack faith in his management, reminding them of how far the club has come in his reign.

“Was APOEL of January 2008 [when he took over] in a better situation compared to APOEL of January 2012?,” he asked. “Did you enjoy the club owning money to all its members, its suppliers and whoever had gone through the training ground doors? Without financial excess APOEL has come very far.”

However, the team’s fans and those with a soft spot for the underdog have plenty of reasons to be optimistic about APOEL’s chances against Lyon.

APOEL have earned a reputation as a big game team in recent years in Cyprus, turning it on when it has really mattered. Their main problem this season has been a difficulty in unlocking tight defences in matches against lesser teams, whereas they have thrived in the Champions League when they have been able to sit back and play on the counter attack, something that they expect will be the case in France on Tuesday.

“For us at APOEL it is different because in the Cypriot league we tend to keep our defence tight and we need to open up our opponents,” APOEL winger Constantinos Charalambides told uefa.com. “In the Champions League, you are playing against much bigger teams who want to attack; you need to combat this and yet still play your own game. It’s how we prefer to play. I think this is why we have been successful.”

In the group stage games, they have averaged 42 per cent of possession. Only five out of the 32 teams averaged less possession than the Cypriots and four of these were Genk, Dinamo Zagreb, Otelu Galati and Victoria Plzen.

Instead, APOEL have been a model of efficiency. In the five games it took them to secure their place in the last 16 of the Champions League, APOEL were the most efficient team in the competition, needing less than four attempts to find the net according to UEFA’s official statistics.

As Zonal Marking’s Michael Cox outlined following APOEL’s 2-1 victory over Porto in November, “APOEL’s position are the top of the group is down to their attacking efficiency. They don’t attack much, but they attack well.”

Central to that strategy is Brazilian striker Ailton, arguably APOEL’s best player and their stand out performer in the Champions League this season. The player, who was the club’s record signing at a little above $1.2 million, has been prolific in the competition having scored a total of seven goals, three of those coming in the group stages.

It is no coincidence that APOEL’s poor run of results in 2012 has coincided with Ailton being out injured. With Jovanovic’s public dissatisfaction with the performances of the side’s other striker Esteban Solari, in Ailton’s absence winger Ivan Trickovski has been forced to play the lone striker role, robbing the side of the creativity of a player best deployed out wide or just behind Ailton in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

After more than two months on the sidelines, Ailton is expected to start against Lyon on Tuesday. He played 67 minutes on Friday against Ethnikos Achnas and the improvement in the team’s performance was notable.

Following the euphoria that came from qualifying to the last 16 of the continent’s premier club competition, the return back down to earth was abrupt and the realisation that they are not immune from criticism, despite all they have achieved, has come as a nasty surprise to APOEL.

However against Lyon, with nobody expecting them to win and in a game where they can play to their strengths, Jovanovic is hoping his team can take another Champions League scalp and silence the critics for good.

Nassos Stylianou is a freelance writer with work published in various online and print publications including IBWM, FOX Soccer, When Saturday Comes and the Cyprus Mail. He can be found on twitter @nassos_