Head coach of the Armenian national football team Armen Gyulbudaghyants says he has thanked the footballers after the Euro 2020 qualifying match against Italy on Thursday.

Armenia were defeated by Italy 1-3 in the Group j match played at Yerevan’s Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium. Aleksandre Karapetian gave Armenia a lead in the 11th minute, but Andrea Belotti eventually equalised for Italy in the 28th minute. Italy wrapped up the match in the last 15 minutes with Lorenzo Pellegrini’s first goal for his country and another strike from Belotti.

“We played well during the first 20 minutes, but then Italy started attacking intensely and pressing us and we missed a goal. We tried to play well for some 25 minutes of the second half, but we lost eventually,” the head coach said in a post-match news conference.

Asked to comment on the performance of midfielder Kamo Hovhannisyan, who seemed to be tired at the end of the game, the coach said the footballer refused to be replaced.

“As you know Kamo is a fighter, he fights till the end. In the end he showed that he was able to fight,” he said.

The head coach expressed confidence the team will recover before the Bosnia and Herzegovina clash on 8 September.