Sporting Life
June 2 2007
Kazakhstan 1 Armenia 2
Armenia registered their first win in six attempts of their Euro 2008
qualifying campaign as they beat Kazakhstan 2-1 in Almaty.
In a game between two struggling teams in Group A, it was the
visitors who showed more purpose going forward and they took their
reward with all three points.
Both Armenia’s goals came within 10 first-half minutes with Robert
Arzumanyan opening the scoring just after the half-hour mark before
Sargis Hovsepyan doubled the advantage from the penalty spot.
Ruslan Baltiyev then got a late goal back for Kazakhstan, also from
the spot.
After a slow start, Armenia finally got a sight of goal in the 21st
minute but Ararat Arakelian sent his shot wide from 25 yards.
Minutes later, they were ahead as Hamlet Mkhitaryan crossed for
Arzumanyan to fire in a left-footed shot from the edge of the area.
They doubled their lead six minute before the break after Aleksandr
Kuchma brought down Samvel Melkonyan inside the area and Hovsepyan
stepped up to blast a powerful penalty into the bottom left-hand
corner of the net.
Chances were hard to come by in the second half.
Five minutes in, Yeghishe Melikyan tried his luck with a free-kick
but it was easily dealt with by David Loria in the Kazakhstan goal.
The hosts had been non-existent as an attacking force but finally
registered a shot on goal in the 70th minute when Murat Tleshev let
fly from 20 yards, only to hit is straight at Armenia goalkeeper
Gevorg Kasparov.
However, the hosts would get on the scoresheet two minutes from time
when Baltiyev hit a penalty straight down the middle for what would
prove to be nothing more than a consolation goal.