ESPN
Sept 5 2009
Armenia 0 – 2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ibricic, Muslimovic secure points
Updated: September 5, 2009, 3:00 AM ET
Bosnia-Herzegovina kept up their challenge for a place in South Africa
by beating Armenia in a World Cup qualifier this evening. A goal in
each half from Senijad Ibricic and Zlatan Muslimovic in Yerevan gave
the points to the visitors, consolidating their position in second
place in Group Five.
There could have been more goals as Edin Dzeko missed a penalty for
the the visitors in the first half and Artavazd Karamyan struck the
woodwork for Armenia in the second. Bosnia-Herzegovina are now clear
favourites to qualify for the play-offs from the group, having taken
15 points from seven games, and could even challenge for first place
should leaders Spain lose their perfect record.
It took just five minutes for the visitors to take the lead. Admir
Vladavic set up Ibricic, who initially headed against the bar but was
able to convert the rebound.
As the visitors dominated, Armenia keeper Gevorg Kasparov made sharp
saves to deny Wolfsburg striker Dzeko and Hoffenheim’s Vedad
Ibisevic. And Bosnia-Herzegovina missed a glorious chance to go 2-0 up
when they were awarded a penalty after 33 minutes, but Dzeko could not
convert.
Armenia’s best chance of the half fell to Henrikh Mkhitaryan four
minutes before the break, but his effort was innocuous. Bosnia took
their foot off the pedal somewhat after the restart and almost paid
the price when Karamyan’s long-range effort was kept out by a
combination of visiting keeper Nemanja Supic and post.
With Bosnia-Herzegovina now limited largely to counter-attacks, the
second goal was a relief when it arrived. Dzeko made up for his
penalty miss by supplying the cross for Muslimovic to convert 15
minutes from time.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
