Armenia 1-1 Cymru

Vazgen Sargsyn Republican Stadium

Yerevan, Armenia

Saturday 18th November 2023

Stephen @stephenjbaker reviews the disappointing result from Yerevan.

With Cymru two wins away from qualifying for Euro 2024, they took on Armenia in the first match of the international break. Y Wal Goch, having one eye on the Türkiye game on Tuesday, were hoping for a straight forward win despite drawing twice our previous group matches. And suffering THAT defeat in June against Armenia in Cardiff.

The Cymru fans were in fine voice as the game kicked off, but unfortunately for the first five minutes it was like our players also had one eye on Tuesday. Armenia had 93% possession during this time; leading to a sixth minute corner. Cymru failed to clear the ball, Lucas Zelarayan unmarked outside the box, picked up the loose ball. He cut inside, almost unnoticed by the Cymru defence and shot from twenty yards into the bottom corner beating the outstretched Danny Ward.

A poor goal to concede by Cymru, a hesitant Danny Ward took one step forward to claim the corner but then stepped back. Failure to clear the ball and not picking up any of the Armenian player in and around the box by the defenders. 

An awful start to the game, instead of waking the team up, the goal almost sent the team into a deeper sleep. Passes never reaching their destination, Kieffer Moore managed to knock the ball down in space a few times but unfortunately the space didn’t include Harry Wilson. Running with the ball was not much better where Cymru failed to get past the first man time and again.

The underwhelming performance continued till the second of three added minutes of the first half, when a long throw from Conner Roberts was launched into the box. Nayair Tikniziyan had no choice other than to put his head to the ball to beat the leaping Joe Rodon. Unfortunately for the Armenian the ball flew into the top corner, giving Cymru and somewhat undeserved equaliser.

The second half improved for Cymru, but still the misplaced passes continued. With the Armenian keeper having to make only a couple more saves. The best chances fell to Armenia including just after the hour when Vahan Bichakhchyan shot from outside the box beat Danny Ward only to hit the crossbar. The rebounding ball then fell to goal scorer Lucas Zelarayan only for him to hit the ball high into the Yerevan sky.

Clear chances for Cymru were few and far between, a long range header from Kieffer Moore that was pushed out for a corner. The game ended 1-1 with Armenia thinking they could have gotten more out of the game. With qualifying now out of Cymru’s hands, it’s a must win on Tuesday and hope Croatia drop points to Armenia. Why take the easy road hey?

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