VADUZ, Liechtenstein – With victory slipping through its fingers in Vaduz’s Rheinpark Stadium, Armenia remained on the third horizontal of the group J of the Euro 2020 qualifying games on October 12. The Armenian squad continues to be behind Italy and Finland, but ahead of three other competitors: Liechtenstein, Greece and Bosnia.
At this game, at first, on the 19th minute, Tigran Barseghyan scored a goal and pushed the Armenian team ahead. The soccer players went to half-time break with the Armenian team leading both in the score and quality of the game. However, the national squad was unable to keep up the same level. During almost the entire second half Liechtenstein played more aggressively and at the 72nd minute Yanik Frick leveled the score.
Liechtenstein’s team, which appears on the bottom of the group, has no real chances to play at the Euro 2020 final games and so the outcome would not change anything from that perspective. However, for Armenians, gaining a victory was of ultimate importance in order to significantly improve their chances to participate in the play-off. After the tie score appeared on the board, the squad from Yerevan retook the initiative and created multiple threatening moments at Liechtenstein’s goal in an attempt to reclaim victory. However none of those attacks succeeded.
Bosnia, which was behind the Armenian team in the group, defeated Finland and gained three additional scores. Although the Bosnians continue to rank fourth in group J, now they have the same amount of scores (10) as our squad.
On October 15, Finland will host Armenia’s national team. Next month our soccer team will compete with Greece in Yerevan and finish the qualifying games with a game at Renzo Barbera stadium in Palermo, Italy against the leading Italian squad. Now all eyes are on the Tuesday game, where a difficult but successful outcome would elevate the Armenian squad to the second horizontal. However, the game has similarly substantial importance for the Finns who will certainly try to keep their second position. In March, during the first game between the two national teams in Yerevan, the Finns prevailed.
