Joy for Armenia and Albania
Tuesday, 13 September 2005
by Paul Saffer
from Crystal Palace National Sports Arena

Tal Grig Yerevan and Dinamo Tirana have made it
through the UEFA Futsal Cup preliminary round after
another dramatic day of action in England that saw
mini-tournament hosts London White Bear FC eliminated
by the smallest of margins.

London out
Yerevan were beaten 2-1 tonight by mini-tournament
hosts London but the home side were eliminated by
virtue of a three-way head-to-head goals scored
tie-breaker with their opponents and Tirana. All three
sides finished on six points but Armenian side Yerevan
and Albanian entrants Tirana take first and second
spot respectively. French debutants Roubaix Futsal
finished bottom of the group after their 5-1 defeat by
Tirana in the day’s first game.

Mullaj strikes
Roubaix needed an improbable 12-goal win to have any
hope of taking a top-two place on their competition
debut, but although they had much of the possession
against Tirana, but they were 2-0 down within five
minutes as Ani Mullaj struck his fifth goal of the
round and Gerdi Spahiu added another. In between Mehdi
Rokia hit the post for Roubaix. The French side pushed
hard, but before the break Mullaj scorted on the
break.

Deserved consolation
Artan Qopekaj made it 4-0 on the half-hour and Indrin
Llagami hit Tirana’s fifth five minutes later, after
which David Vieira claimed a deserved consolation for
Roubaix. That result meant London realistically needed
a two-goal win to go through.

Quickfire Danielyan
However, it took only ten seconds for Armen Danielyan
to give Yerevan the lead. The goal, though, did not
dishearten London who now made the play for the
remaining 39 minutes and 50 seconds.

Home heartbreak
There was frustration after frustration for the hosts
as Artak Harutyunyan in the Yerevan goal seemed
unbeatable. Five minutes into the second half his goal
was finally breahed, Anatoliy Sigur striking. Soon
after London’s key man Alexandre Topalo had an effort
ruled out as the ball had left play earlier in the
move and Ruslan Lipskiy hit the post. With four
minutes left Topalo gave London a deserved lead, which
they held to the end, only to learn that their victory
would not keep their first European campaign going.

Benfica waiting
Yerevan now enter Group 3 of next month’s first
qualifying round, and will face the might of 2004
finalists SL Benfica along with Cyprus’s AGBU Ararat
Nicosia and mini-tournament hosts Colorspectrum Aramis
Budapest of Hungary. Tirana will play in Group 4,
staged by Slovenia’s KMN Svea Lesna Litija and also
featuring KMF Marbo Beograd and Athena ’90 of Serbia
and Montenegro and Greece respectively.

©uefa.com 1998-2005.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress