Cyprus beat Moldova 3-2 in Nicosia, the scoreline tighter than the control A. Mantzios’ side showed for most of the evening yet still enough to close the March window on a positive note.
Loizos Loizou set the rhythm in the 5th minute, sliding the pass that let Grigoris Kastanos open the scoring and reward a Cyprus XI built around ball-playing midfielders who know each other well from domestic duty. Once in front, the hosts dictated the tempo through the axis of Charalampos Kyriakou, Kastanos, and Charalampos Charalampous, keeping Moldova penned in with quick circulation rather than raw possession numbers.
Moldova never settled in the first half. Charalampous doubled the lead in the 30th minute, then punished a loose defensive shape again in the 44th minute, his late runs from midfield exactly what Mantzios wanted from the supporting cast behind Ioannis Pittas and Andronikos Kakoullis. S. Cleşcenco reacted before the break, pulling Dan Pușcaș in the 37th minute, but the damage was already substantial.
Cleşcenco demanded a reset at the interval. He made a triple change at the restart, introducing Ştefan Bodişteanu, Danila Forov, and Stephan Negru, although Bodişteanu was in the book by the 47th minute while Moldova chased the game with far more aggression.
The visitors finally found a route back when Ioan-Calin Revenco supplied Petru Popescu in the 56th minute, a reminder that patience on the right flank could unpick Cyprus once the press tired. Mantzios immediately managed workloads, withdrawing Loizou and the two-goal Charalampous in the 61st minute, leaning on Giannis Kosti and Evangelos Andreou to stabilise midfield zones.
Moldova’s bench kept chipping away. Victor Stina arrived in the 81st minute and made it 3-2 in the 88th minute after a spell where the visitors pushed higher while Cyprus cycled through defensive substitutions, including Evagoras Antoniou, Panagiotis Andreou, Anderson Correia, Nikolas Koutsakos, and Angelos Neophytou between the 85th and 86th minutes. Antreas Paraskevas’ yellow card in the first minute of stoppage time underlined the late pressure but Cyprus saw it out.
Mantzios will like the balance. Shots on goal finished 5-4, Moldova’s 13 fouls to Cyprus’ five told the story of a side scrambling to disrupt rather than build, and the hosts created enough through midfield before rotating heavily. Moldova, by contrast, needed Revenco’s delivery and Stina’s cameo to salvage pride after a blunt first half that raised questions about Cleşcenco’s starting selections.
Key numbers:
- Possession: Cyprus 50 percent – Moldova 50 percent
- Shots on goal: Cyprus 5 – Moldova 4
- Fouls: Cyprus 5 – Moldova 13
- Corners: Cyprus 4 – Moldova 1
- Offsides: Cyprus 3 – Moldova 2
Cyprus now carry momentum into June’s Nations League preparations, with Mantzios set to fine-tune the midfield rotations that powered this win. Moldova have to reassess their opening structure before the next camp, and external observers can measure their progress against other international tune-ups, including Germany 2-1 Ghana: Undav rescues Löw’s reboot in Stuttgart, as the window continues.
