Skipper Varazdat Haroyan has insisted Armenia's lingering sense of injustice will not be a factor in their latest clash with the Republic of Ireland on Saturday evening.
The sides meet at the Republican Stadium in Yerevan as the new Nations League campaign gets under way, but for Armenian football fans it will rekindle memories of their team’s 2-1 Euro 2012 qualifying defeat in Dublin in October 2011.
That night, the visitors had goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky sent off for handling outside his area despite his claims that the ball had hit his chest, and their anger was compounded by referee Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez’s failure to penalise Republic striker Simon Cox for handball during the build-up.
Asked if that would provide extra motivation this time around, defender Haroyan said: "We are very motivated for tomorrow’s game. All the players and all Armenians remember the game back in 2011.
"But that game took place almost 11 years ago, a lot of time has passed since that and we have had a lot of good matches after that, so for tomorrow’s game, we are very much motivated and we will do our best to get a good result."
Armenia are newly promoted to League B after winning their League C group last time around, and while they know life may be significantly more testing this time around, they are relishing the opportunity to test themselves at a higher level.
Coach Joaquin Caparros said: "We are promoted from League C and it's a really good feeling. Of course we know how difficult it is going to be for us in this league, but we are confident.
"We have good players and we will do our best to compete at this level in the group generally and also in tomorrow’s game."
Armenia head into the game looking for something of a reset after a series of indifferent results.
They made a more than creditable start to their World Cup qualifying campaign with successive wins over Liechtenstein, Iceland and Romania, but their last two competitive fixtures ended in a 5-0 defeat by North Macedonia and a 4-1 reverse at the hands of Germany, both at home, and they were trounced 9-0 in Norway during March’s round of friendlies.
Asked how his players had reacted to that horror show, Caparros said: "I don’t want anyone to remind me about that game.
"Of course it was a tough result for us to accept, but the team has already forgotten it and we are preparing for the upcoming matches."
Follow Armenia v Republic of Ireland (Saturday, 2pm) via our live blog on rte.ie/sport or on the RTÉ News app. Watch live coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player commencing at 1pm with live radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/0603/1302925-motivation-not-an-issue-according-to-armenian-skipper/