SPORTSWORLD.AM
In the third round of the Europa League qualifying round, Armenian champion/cupholder NOA faced off against Gibraltar's Lincoln Red Imps in an away match.
Sandro Perković's men started the match actively and in the fourth minute, NOA scored with a free kick, but it was not recorded: Helder Ferreira was offside during Gudmundur Thorarinsson's pass.
In the eighth minute of the match, Can Etek, noticing the opponent's miss, opened the score. Eric Bouake, who appeared in the penalty area of the Gibraltar representative, made a threatening shot, but the ball was caught by Nauzet Santana. "NOA" left the competition with one loss. Hovhannes Harutyunyan is absent from the Armenian representative's delegation due to injury.
In the opening thirty minutes, Gor Manvelyan and his teammates have less possession of the ball, but in that situation they are in the position of the winner, but the opponent should not be underestimated, not long ago the Armenian national team ended the match in Yerevan with a draw of 1:1. At that time, everyone agreed that our team should have ended that match with a victory.
Led by Sandro Perkovic, NOA played one match in the newly launched Fastex Premier League, defeating Gyumri's Shirak 4:0, and at that moment, NOA and Pyunik are the leaders with three points each. The "Pomegranate" also started the current championship with a victory, defeating Alashkert 2:1, which was the last match for Yeghishe Melikyan at the helm of Pyunik.
Jan Eteki broke the rules by pulling the opponent's shirt in his own penalty area and scored a penalty kick against the goal defended by Ognjen Cancarević, who saved the Serbian goalkeeper with the first shot, but with the second shot, Tjei De Baar equalized the score.
In the second half, the home team dominated the game, having more possession of the ball, and this in a game where most of the opposing team were not professional footballers. Marin Jakolish scored in the 62nd minute of the match, but the referee ruled it offside. It turns out that Virgil Pinson and his friends scored twice - from an offside position - against the team led by Juanjo Bezares.
Quique Gomez, leaving two NOA defenders empty-handed, shot at goal, but failed to hit the ball. In total, NOA received eight yellow cards in this match, one of which went to Sandro Perkovic. In the last minute of regular time, Oulad Omar put his team ahead, but the referee did not register it.
The return match will be held on July 14 at 9:00 PM at the Vahagn Tumasyan Sports Complex in Abovyan.