11:17 . 01/06
The Armenian National Team held a friendly match on Thursday with the Greek team at Grenzlandstadion stadium in Kufstein city. One may call this match Roman Berezovski against the football players of the Greek team, where our goalkeeper won, the score being 2:1.
For the first time, Roman Berezovski saved two penalties in the Armenian team. Roman’s fans also witnessed such heroism in Zenit. However, our team was defeated in the 4th Armenian-Greece match with a minimum score. But, unlike the previous three matches, it was clear this is the team, which not only doesn’t cede the positions but also fights for winning.
It took Armenian team a while before our players could adjust to the pace set by the Greeks and start bothering the opponent’s goalkeeper. Kyriakos Papadopoulos scored for Greece with a header in the 23rd minute meeting a free kick from veteran Giorgos Karagounis after a spell of pressure on the Armenia defense early on. The Greeks were trying to develop the success but our goalkeeper and skilled fullback Sargis Hovsepyan were able to neutralize the dangerous attacks by Greeks.
More significant events happened in the second half. Armenia took territorial advantage over the Greeks. 5 minutes after the start of the second half the Greek goalkeeper Mikhalis Safakis came to a rescue to save from Gevorg Ghazaryan’s shot. The efforts of Yura Movsisyan, Marcos Pizzelli and Henrikh Mkhitaryan following one another proved futile, meeting defense. The referee awarded two penalties to Greece after controversial fouls committed by Armenian defenders in the penalty box. In both cases Armenia’s 38-year-old goalkeeper Berezovsky denied the shots. Till the end of the play Armenia created several goal-scoring chances, but could materialize none.
3 minutes before the end of the match Vardan Miansyan’s nerves broke down. The referee sent off Armenia head coach Vardan Minasyan apparently for disputing with him. This was already the third red card during the past week shown by the Austrian referee: to the players of Armenia’s under 19 football team Grigor Hovhannisyan and Eduard Tatoyan and during this match the coach of the Armenian team Vardan Minasyan.
