YEREVAN — In recent days people in kilts, a man’s skirt-like traditional garment of Scotland, were spotted in Yerevan. This unusual scene for Armenia was due to nearly 1.000 Scottish soccer fans arriving to support their national squad. According to British media, due to overbooking, flight cancelation, and the existing limitations related to air flights, some members of the Scottish fan club known as Tartan Army took five flights to come to Georgia and a train ride from there to arrive in Yerevan.
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Nations League’s final summer match was crucial for both teams: Armenia, after winning against Ireland 10 days ago, lost its two subsequent games, first against Scotland in Glasgow (June 8), then to Ukraine in Poland’s Lodz (June 10). Scotland was defeated by the Irish squad last week and needed scores to compete with Ireland and Ukraine, which leads the group with zero defeats at this stage.
In the seventh minute of the match, the left-winger of Slovan Bratislava Tigran Barsegian passed the ball to the attacking midfield of Polish Pogon Vahan Bichakhchian, who fired the ball, making Armenia the winner for, as it turned out, only eight minutes. After Stuart Armstrong leveled the game, Bayramian had the ball in the Scottish net again, however the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) detected offside, and the goal wasn’t counted. The hosts intensified attacks for which one of the international websites commented on the 24th minute of the game: Armenia are causing Scotland all sorts of problems on the counter-attack. But the tide turned soon. As tensions grew at Vazgen Sargsyan Stadium, the Armenian players began arguing about Montenegrin referee’s decisions that seemed to favor the guests not the hosts. In the 31st minute, Haroyan received a yellow card for allegedly wasting time on a free-kick. However, many expected the Scottish player to have been booked instead of violating the rule. The violation had led to a pause in the game, and some players were drinking water and resting, which caused some delay in Haroyan’s action.
Ninety seconds before the break, the Armenian team was reduced to ten after defender Arman Hovhannisyan received two back-to-back yellow cards and had to leave the field. Right after that, Stuart Armstrong sent the ball into the bottom right corner of the net. The Scottish team looked far more assured in the beginning part of the second half bringing the score to 1:4 in only five minutes after the break. Before the game ended, Kamo Hovhannisian was sent off, lowering the Armenian squad’s number to only nine players. Armenia’s goal-keeper Yurchenko was successful in some saves, and Barsegian had a chance to score in the 69th minute, however, the score remained unchanged.
