As Eamonn Sweeney put it in his excellent Sunday Independent column, Cork City are the top side in Ireland but were ‘a class below’ AEK Larnaca when the Cypriot side played them in the second qualifying round for the Europa League.

There was no shame in losing to Larnaca. Although Cork were handicapped by the fact that they come from the League of Ireland – a fate which Sweeney outlines as being ‘down among the dead men’ in his bleak piece about the state of Irish club football – Larnaca’s quality should be the overriding takeaway from the tie. The first leg of the third round took place last night. Larnaca picked up another comfortable win, beating Dinamo Minsk of Belarus by two goals to nil.

The biggest difference between Larnaca and Cork, Cypriot and Irish football, is that Cyprus can attract an array of talented foreigners. If there is such a thing as typical Cypriot football, it’s not evident when Larnaca play. They play like a Spanish club. It’s little surprise when you see the Spanish presence at the club. Five Spaniards started in that win over Minsk, one, Tete, scored a goal.

Another two came off the bench. Their head coach, Imanol Idiakez, is Spanish. So are his assistant and the club’s fitness coach. Xavi Roca, a retired Spanish right-back who came through the ranks of Barcelona and played for a number of years at Villarreal, is Larnaca’s technical director. He spoke to Bleedin’ Deadly about the revolution happening at the club.

“We are a team which is effectively only three years old,” says Roca of the club’s Spanish era. “Larnaca comes from the fusion of two teams with a very long history in Cyprus (EPA Larnaca and Pezoporikos). Three and a half years ago, we started a new project which has produced very good results up until now. The club is growing very fast in all aspects. In the last three championships, we were very close. Unfortunately, at the end, APOEL took them because they are very strong. Not only on the pitch. They are the strongest team in Cyprus in every sense. So we have to fight with a huge opponent in this championship.” APOEL have also shown their strength in Europe in recent years.

Regular competitors in continental competition, they reached the last 16 of the Europa League last season. They’ve made it to the group stages of the Champions League three times since 2009, making history by being the first Cypriot team to reach the quarter-finals before they were battered 8-2 on aggregate by Real Madrid. Larnaca are quite a bit away from reaching those heights. They reached the Europa League group stage once (in 2011).

“It’s true that we have a lot of Spanish players,” Roca continued. “Already there were some players when I came but it is the way. We try to bring players in from everywhere but I take care of a lot of the personal matters. How the player is, not only on the pitch, also in his personal life. Whether he’s conducting himself professionally away from the pitch, his habits. It’s very important at the highest level of professional football. In the Spanish market, I can get more information about the personal life. That’s why finally I have to sign players from there. Obviously, as you said, it’s affecting our style because we have very good players with a very good technique who like to get the ball to build up. They don’t wait on the pitch. We like to be protagonists on the ball and try to play attractive football. I think in life there are a lot of problems so if somebody is paying for a ticket to watch a football game, we should at least give them something to enjoy.”

Few spectators could complain about not getting value for money. Larnaca play a slick brand of passing football where tactical intelligence trumps physical combativeness. That’s what allowed them to sweep aside Cork despite lacking full fitness in what is still pre-season for them. Roca calls Cork a strong team, one with the quality he wasn’t expecting to find in the second round: “They are a very competitive team. They showed this with their tactical aspects. In the second game, they tried to avoid our style, how we play. They are a very good team. It was good for us that they had players out in defence, a key factor in the round.”

There’s no shortage of decisive players at Larnaca, many with the ability to decide a game. Roca talks me through the team: “I think we have very good players in every position. Starting from the goalkeeper and defence. [Former Espanyol defender] Catala is a leader, he’s our captain. In the middle, we have [ex-Atletico Madrid, Celta Vigo and Las Palmas midfielder] Jorge Larena, a very, very high-quality player from Spain. Up front, we have Florian [Taulemesse] and Ivan [Trickovski], who is an international player for Macedonia. Then there is Tete, who is very short [5’5] and fast. It’s attractive to watch him in the game because he’s always doing attractive, amazing things. Acoran is one of our more important players, he was out against Cork. He’s also very fast and likes to play deep.”

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“About the Cypriot football, I think they have very good players who have very good skills. They are trying to improve in some matters. They’re trying to add new rules in the top flight to help Cypriot players develop and be more important in the teams. But it’s not easy because we have the chance to bring in talented foreign players. It’s very difficult to compete and be in the first eleven. We are trying to give chances and keep this important identity. We’ll try to help the young players. We’ll bring in players from the academy and help them to grow in the first team dynamic. It’s all going to take time.”

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It’s worth noting that the average age of the Larnaca lineup against Cork was over 31-years-old. While it’s not the most encouraging statistic for young Cypriot footballers, an experienced team is often necessary for a European campaign. Roca insists the average age of the squad is irrelevant, that it’s only used as a stick to beat Larnaca with. “Whether being an experienced team is good or not depends on the results. If you get good results, nobody is complaining about the age and it appears to be helping the team. But, on the other hand, when you’re not doing well, people will use age as a criticism. They’ll say that ‘these players aren’t hungry, they’ve already done everything in football’. It’s not important. What’s clear for us is the style of football that we want to play. It’s very difficult to bring in players with these skills. The reason there are players between 30 and 35 years old is because that’s the age most of these high-quality players are willing to come to our competition, the championship in Cyprus.”

It’s a fair compromise when one considers their class. Larnaca is undoubtedly the kind of club that will garner admirers the further they go in the Europa League. “The games against Dinamo Minsk will be very difficult games. If a team is in the third round, it means they’re a good team. Obviously, they have good players and they’re going to fight hard. Tactically, they are very good. Also, as with Cork, already they are in official competition. We’ll take it seriously and give it the effort that it deserves. We wanna go through. Again, we dream of the groups. First, we have to secure victory against Dinamo.”