Posted on September 10, 2025
The Cyprus National Football Team suffered a 1-0 away defeat to Austria on Saturday, in the matchday 5 of Group 8 in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Despite the loss, Cyprus earned applause and left a posi-tive impression with their perfor-mance at the Raiffeisen Arena, showing great composure and determination throughout the match.
With a total of 15 attempts on goal, including very good chan-ces, Cyprus was unable to score. Instead, they conceded the only goal of the match in the 54th minute, when Sabitzer scored from the penalty spot.
This result marked Austria’s third win in as many matches in the qualifiers, while Cyprus suffered their third defeat in four games.
The team returned to Cyprus on Sunday night and played on Tuesday’ a crucial home match against Romania at the GSP Stadium, as part of matchday 6 of the 2026 World Cup quali-fiers.
What a great performance from Cyprus at home to Romania in the World Cup qualifiers drawing 2-2.
Despite the Cypriot team finding themselves behind 2-0 after 20 minutes.
The Romanians led 2-0 thanks to goals by Drakus (2’, 18’) and Cyprus began their fight back in the 29th minute when Kastanos, Loizou, reduced the score to 2-1 with a close range shot..
The second half continued with Cyprus pressurising the Romanian rearguard and in the 76th minute, Kakoullis headed the ball to the oncoming Chara-lambos Charalambous who, with a powerful shot, equalized at 2-2.
Cyprus were in top form now looking for the winner and third goal that would have turned the game around and in added time, Pittas found himself in an extre-mely favorable position but his shot was saved by the Romanian goalkeeper.
The Cyprus group standings are as follows:
1. Bosnia/Herzegovina 12 points
2. Austria 12 (but in 4 matches)
3. Romania 7 points
4. Cyprus 4 points
5. San Marino without a point.