MALTA — Armenia opened their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with an away win after beating Malta 1-0. Substitute Artur Sarkisov’s 70th-minute strike ensured Armenia’s victory.
It was a deserved victory for Armenia, who nearly went ahead as early as the fifth minute when Yura Movsisyan’s 20-yard free-kick was tipped round the post by Andrew Hogg.
Hogg also had to deny Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s strike while Movsisyan’s volley cannoned off the post as Vardan Minasyan’s men continued to push forward.
Both sides had chances to break the deadlock after the interval but Sarkisov’s introduction proved pivotal. The striker, who came on for Marcos Pizelli, slotted home Movsisyan’s left-wing cross to give Armenia the lead with Hogg finally beaten.
Armenia came close to extending their lead through Mkhitaryan whose initial effort, following a set-piece pass from Ozbiliz, took a deflection and ended just wide of the near post. The Armenian winger was then denied by Hogg who beat away his powerful effort from inside the box.
In other Group B match Bulgaria and Italy played a 2-2 tie. Next for Armenia in a matchup with Bulgaria in Sofia on September 11.
href=”/worldcup/preliminaries/europe/matches/group=258378/index.html”>Matches

Group B
Team   MP   W   D   L   GF   GA   Pts
Armenia    1    1   0   0    1    0     3
Bulgaria    1    0   1   0    2    2     1
Italy    1    0   1   0    2    2     1
Czech Republic    0    0   0   0    0    0     0
Denmark    0    0   0   0    0    0     0
Malta    1    0   0   1    0    1     0

 

Armenia team agains Malta: G. Kasparov, S. Hovsepyan, R. Arzumanyan (80 V. Aleksanyan), H. Mkoyan, A. Yedigaryan (53 D. Manoyan), H. Mkhitaryan, L. Airapetian, A. Ozbiliz, M. Pizzelli (65 A. Sarkisov), Y. Movsisyan.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Get notified of the latest updates from MassisPost.

You May Also Like

Pashinyan: We Are Close to Reporting First Practical Results in Unblocking of Regional Communications

YEREVAN — Armenia and Azerbaijan are “very close” to implementing their Russian-brokered…

Prominent Turkish Publisher Ragip Zarakolu Receives Armenian State Award

YEREVAN — Ragip Zarakolu, prominent Turkish human rights campaigner and book publisher,…

‘Red’ Screening Draws Large Crowd In France

On Friday, September 20, the Armenian Council of Europe (ACE), Sourp Khatch…

\”The German Bundestag Would Have Probably Never Passed the Genocide Resolution Without Hrant Dink.\”- Cem Özdemir

TORONTO — On the 10th anniversary of Hrant Dink’s assassination, Armenian political,…