Special for the Armenian Weekly
A capacity crowd of over 16,000 fans packed the Republican Stadium in Yerevan to welcome Cristiano Ronaldo and Group leaders Portugal to Yerevan on Sat., June 13. The match was the first for Sargis Hovsepyan as interim Armenian manager since replacing Bernard Challandes at the helm in late April. There was no fairytale start to his tenure, however, as Armenia yet again relinquished a first-half lead and ultimately fell by a 3:2 score-line.
The performance was a microcosm of what the Armenian team has become in recent times. They compete well for spells during games and flirt with establishing themselves alongside Europe’s stronger sides, but ultimately are undone by untimely lapses in concentration and individual mistakes. Following this latest performance, Armenia has now held early leads in four of their five contests to date, only to come up short in the closing stages of each of those games.
Armenia raced into an early lead following a super free kick from Marcos Pizzelli. Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio cheated towards the expected cross, only to be left red-faced by Pizzelli who sent a dipping effort off the underside of the crossbar and into the unguarded net. The strike was on-par with anything Cristiano Ronaldo could ever conjure.
Portugal was gifted their way back into the match with a first-half penalty kick, following an ill-advised challenge in the box by Henrikh Mkhitaryan on João Moutinho. Ronaldo stepped up and duly obliged with the equalizer from the spot. Following the substitution of midfield talisman Karlen Mkrtchyan due to injury, the remainder of the first half saw the team hold their own against their highly acclaimed opponents and the sides made the turn all-square.
Armenia started brightly at the beginning of the second half and was probing once again for a chance to steal another goal. Marcos Pizzelli came close with a dipping effort from the edge of the box, this time from open play, but within minutes of that effort flashing wide off the post, a calamitous error in defense presented Cristiano Ronaldo with his and Portugal’s second goal. Indecision in dealing with a long ball led to an inexplicable error between two of Armenia’s oldest campaigners, Robert Arzumanyan and goal keeper Roman Berezovsky. It was a chance put right on a plate for one of the world’s greatest players, and Ronaldo made no mistake in poking the ball into an empty net.
Moments later Ronaldo was at it again. After clinically controlling a long ball from the sky with a sublime touch, he shifted the ball from his feet and buried a long range effort into the top corner. It was a top drawer strike that gave the crowd a trademark sample of his talent and gave Berezovsky no chance of retrieving.
With just under half an hour left in the match, Armenia was thrown a lifeline with the sending off of Portugal’s Tiago Mendes. A petulant off-the-ball foul saw him collect his second yellow card and an early shower. It took just under 10 minutes for Armenia to get back into the match. A decent strike from substitute Aras Özbiliz was spilled into the welcome path of Hrayr Mkoyan, and the stalwart defender made no mistake in punishing Rui Patricio, who was having a poor night by his own standards.
With 20 minutes to go and playing with renewed vigor against 10 men, Armenia pushed for the equalizer. On a number of occasions Armenia was able to string some nice passes together at the edge of the box, but the final piece of quality, that elusive final ball evaded the home side. To Portugal’s credit, the players made adjustments by keeping possession and killing time whenever possible. Long balls to Ronaldo were always a threat and would keep the Armenian defense honest by not allowing them to cheat too far up the field.
As the teams played out the final minutes, reality sunk in for the partisan crowd. Armenia was once again relegated to also-rans as a campaign that oftentimes showed signs of promise, ultimately now remains in tatters. As things stand, mathematically Armenia is still in with a chance of a play-off spot. Yet, based on performances to date, it is looking unlikely that Armenia will turn their fortunes around. Hypothetically, Armenia would need to collect at least seven points from their remaining three matches and hope for a reversal of fortunes for a buoyant Albania side. Such an occurrence is something I wouldn’t bet my house on.
Armenia: Berezovsky, Mkoyan, Andonian, Arzumanyan, Airapetian, Mkhitaryan, Mkrtchyan (29’ R. Hovsepyan YC), Hovhannisyan (61’ Özbiliz), Pizzelli, Ghazaryan, Sarkisov (72’ Korian)
Coach: Sargis Hovsepyan
Portugal: Rui Patricio, Vieirinha, R. Carvalho (79’ Fonte), Alves, Eliseu, Nani, Tiago Mendes (62’ YC/RC), Moutinho, Coentrao (72’ Silva), Danny (64’ W. Carvalho), Ronaldo
Coach: Fernando Santos
M.J. Graham
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Ronaldo deserves the 2015 ballon dor though things didn’t go the way he expected.
Cr7 for 2015 ballon dor
SO WE LOST…UNFORTUNATELY…ONLY RONALDO OR MESSI COULD PENETRATE. I KNOW…THEY’RE ONE OF A KIND PLAYERS…
saddly another loss,our defence needs a lot of work.but still they seem to play well against Portugal.Why could we not take Ronaldo for some patcha hash before the game?
i am number one fan of real madrid