All eyes have now turned to Thursday’s Champions League league phase draw after Cypriot champions Pafos FC made history on Tuesday night, becoming only the third Cypriot football club to make it to this stage of European football’s premier competition.

Ahead of Pafos FC now lie eight Champions League ties, four of which will be played at Limassol’s AlphaMega Stadium, with mouthwatering fixtures against the likes of defending champions Paris Saint-Germain, 15-time winners Real Madrid, Catalan icons Barcelona, and English giants Liverpool and Chelsea all possible.

Pafos FC qualified for the league phase on Tuesday night by beating the European champions of 1991, Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade, 3-2 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw on the night at a packed Alphamega Stadium.

Red Star had taken the lead on the hour mark through Mirko Ivanic, but a late goal from Brazilian winger Jaja, a summer signing from Athletico Paranaense who had spent last season on loan at Pafos FC, saw the Cypriot side through to the next round and into the history books.

Jaja celebrates his late winner

Only two other Cypriot clubs and on only five occasions historically have Cypriot clubs made it this far in the Champions League, with all five occasions coming during the era of the old 32-team group stage format.

Anorthosis were the first, qualifying in the 2008/09 season, and finished bottom of their group despite remaining unbeaten at home, achieving a memorable 3-1 victory over Greek side Panathinaikos and a 3-3 draw with Italian giants Inter, who were then managed by Jose Mourinho.

The following year, it was Apoel’s turn to make their Champions League bow, and while they did not manage a win in that year’s group stage, they did manage impressive draws away against Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon, and against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Two years later, in the 2011/12 season, it was Apoel who made the most notable mark of any Cypriot team on European football, winning a closely fought group, before beating French outfit Lyon over two legs to become the first and so far only Cypriot side to reach the Champions League quarter finals.

There, they faced Real Madrid, and while they did manage to score twice at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid put eight past them over the course of the two legs, including two each from Ballon d’Or winners Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, and Karim Benzema, to bring an end to Cypriot football’s greatest fairytale so far.

Apoel have twice reached the Champions League group stage since, though scored only once in six games and suffered 4-0 shellackings at the hands of Barcelona and Ajax in 2014, and conceded 17 goals in six games, including nine against Real Madrid, four of which were scored by Ronaldo, in 2017.

Pafos FC players show off the Champions League sleeve patches on their shirts [Reuters]

This time around, Pafos FC will find themselves in pot 4 for Thursday’s draw, though this is less important than it was in the old format, given that they will play two teams from all four pots.

The first round of league phase fixtures will take place between September 16 and September 18, with the final round set to see all 36 teams play simultaneously on January 28 next year.

Should Pafos FC make it all the way, the Champions League final will be played on May 30 next year at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.

Pafos FC manager Juan Carlos Carcedo leading the celebrations [Reuters]