Sportinglife.co.za
Oct 13 2007
Armenia 0 Serbia 0
Serbia’s chances of reaching Euro 2008 were dented on Saturday in a
goalless draw on the road as Armenia continued their recent good
form.
It is the third time in as many Group A matches the Armenians have
taken points off one of the fancied teams in the group with a win
over Poland and a draw in Portugal in their last two fixtures.
The home side started the match the brighter and Samvel Melkonyan had
the first real chance as he found his way into the box, cut inside
his man and hit a good shot that found the side netting.
Marco Pantelic then had an effort well saved by Roman Berezovsky at
the other end as both sides played a fairly open game.
The chances continued to come and Melkonyan was involved again for
Armenia as he ran down the right hand side and crossed for Artavazd
Karamyan but he shot wide from eight yards.
Serbia then went on the attack with Pantelic supplying a beautiful
through ball from the edge of the box to Dejan Stankovic but he put
his shot wide.
Zdravko Kuzmanovic had another good chance for the Serbs in an
increasingly open game as he beat two men on a mazy run and drilled a
shot from the edge of the box which Berezovsky was equal to.
It was his counterpart Vladimir Stojkovic who was called into action
next although he didn’t know much about it as he kept his team level.
Karamyan made a surging run down the left and put in a low cross
which Levon Pachajyan looked certain to bury from six yards but his
shot hit the keeper in the face and went to safety.
The home side had two golden opportunities to claim the win in the
last 10 minutes as first Karamyan skewed an effort over the bar at
full stretch from six yards after Sargis Hovsepyan had supplied a low
cross.
And just three minutes later Pachajyan put in a similar cross which
substitute Aram Hakobyan met six yards out but he scuffed his effort
past the post.