GIBRALTAR — Armenia beat Gibraltar 6-2 in UEFA Nations Cup D division game keeping a slim chance of promotion to Division C alive. Four-goal Yura Movsisyan quelled a Gibraltar side who initially led through Tjay De Barr. The Chicago Fire forward cancelled out that breakaway goal, then hit a seven-minute hat-trick soon after half-time. Artur Kartashyan and Aleksandre Karapetyan added further strikes to eliminate Gibraltar, avenging Armenia’s shock home loss last month.
Armenia needs to beat Liechtenstein on Monday and hope that FYR Macedonia lose to Gibraltar to have a chance.
Despite the comfortable scoreline, Armenia were rattled early on, seeing two players booked inside the opening seven minutes and the locals were then sent potty on 10 minutes when Gibraltar took the lead.
A rapid breakaway saw Lee Casciaro pinch possession on the halfway line and he released 18-year-old Tjay De Barr, who sped beyond the Armenia defence, skipped past the goalkeeper and coolly slotted the ball into the empty goal.
Yet Armenians slowly asserted control and equalized when Yura Movsisyan scuffed the ball in from close range and Movsisyan scored again as he finished off a fine move early in the second half.
Movsisyan, who plays for Chicago Fire, scored a third and fourth before Artur Kartashyan added the fifth as Armenia scored four goals in 18 second-half minutes to take the game away from Gibraltar.
Gibraltar reduced the arrears to 5-2 on 77 minutes when Adam Priestley, who plays for Ossett United in the English Northern Premier League Division One East, stormed through and drove in a consolation goal to trigger more rapturous celebrations.
Armenia’s Aleksandre Karapetyan ran through in injury time to restore the four goal advantage and seal the 6-2 win.
