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Cyprus National Football Team

Head coach: Angelos Anastasiadis
Captain: Pambos Pittas
Top scorer: Michalis Konstantinou
FIFA ranking: 81

The Cyprus national football team is the national football team of Cyprus and is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association. They have previously been regarded as one of the weakest members of UEFA, having never made the finals of any major international tournament.

The Cyprus national teams first international was a friendly match on 23 July 1949, against Israel in Tel Aviv which ended in a 3-3 draw, one year after becoming a member of the world governing body FIFA. In November 1960, following independence from British rule, Cyprus took part in their first official match, a 1-1 draw against Israel in the first leg of a qualifying tie for the 1962 FIFA World Cup. The return leg ended in a 6-1 defeat.

UEFA membership followed in 1962, and the next year was even more momentous as Cyprus won their first international - beating Greece 3-1 on 27 November in a friendly. That was followed two years later by another victory when Cyprus beat Lebanon 2-0 in a friendly match.

On 17th February 1968 Cyprus made history when they won their first non-friendly match, a European Championship Qualifier in Nicosia, beating Switzerland 2-1.

In 1974, the national team enjoyed one of their most famous victories when a team of part-timers beat a Northern Ireland side featuring legendary goalkeeper Pat Jennings, 1-0 in Nicosia. In 1989 they drew 1-1 with France in World Cup qualifying match. A result which meant that the French did not qualify for the World Cup final stages. Despite other similar triumphs on home soil, Cyprus had to wait until 1992 to record their first away win, a 2-0 victory in the Faroe Islands.

Results in qualifying tournaments have also improved considerably in recent times. In the qualifying stages for the 1996 UEFA European Championship, Cyprus drew 1-1 with holders Denmark, ending the campaign on seven points. Four years later, they missed out on a place in the 2000 European Football Championship by a solitary point. 3-2 victories against Spain and Israel and a 4-0 defeat of San Marino contributed to the team finishing on 12 points, just one point behind Israel and Austria, but two consecutive defeats, 8-0 away to Spain and 3-1 in Austria, meant the team finsihed in fourth place. Cyprus victory over Spain signalled the end of Javier Clemente's time as the Spanish manager.

On 7th October 2006, Cyprus caused a major upset beating a severely weakened Republic of Ireland 5-2 at home with Michalis Konstantinou and Constantinos Charalambides each scoring two goals and Michalis Garpozis one goal. And on 15th November 2006 caused yet another surprise by holding the World Cup semi-finalists Germany to a 1-1 draw at home.

On 7th October 2006 the Cypriot squad had debuted their new Diadora national kit. The new white kit displays part of the map of Cyprus (orange/yellow) from the shoulder to the sleeve with a green line running down the middle which emphasises the continuing division of the island.

Cyprus Team
No.	NAME	POS	H(M)	W(Kg)	Age
12	Michalis Morfis	G	-	-	28
12	Sofronis Augustis	G	-	-	-
22	Antonis Georgallides	G	-	-	-
2	Georgos Theodotou	D	-	-	33
4	Lambros Lambrou	D	-	-	-
5	Loukas Louka	D	-	-	-
6	Stelios Okkarides	D	-	-	28
8	Marios Elia	D	-	-	-
19	Alexis Garpozis	D	-	-	27
-	Christos Maragos	M	-	-	-
3	Ilias Charalambous	M	-	-	26
10	Constantinos Charalambidis	M	-	-	-
13	Chrysis Michael	M	-	-	29
17	Marinos Satsias	M	-	-	29
20	Constantinos Makrides	M	-	-	-
23	Simos Krassas	M	-	-	-
29	Charis Nicolaou	M	-	-	-
31	Paraskevas Christou	M	-	-	-
32	Kyriacos Hailis	M	-	-	-
7	Stathis Aloneftis	S	-	-	-
9	Yiannakis Okkas	S	1.76	80	30
11	Michalis Konstantinou	S	1.87	82	29
16	Nektarios Alexandrou	S	-	-	23
18	Yiasoumi Yiasoumis	S	1.85	78	32

Group D
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Germany	7	6	1	0	29	4	25	19
Czech Republic	7	4	2	1	15	4	11	14
Ireland	7	4	1	2	12	8	4	13
Slovakia	7	3	0	4	16	13	3	9
Wales	6	2	1	3	8	9	-1	7
Cyprus	6	1	1	4	9	16	-7	4
San Marino	6	0	0	6	1	36	-35	0