Serbia make Armenia pay penalty
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Serbia continue to set the pace in UEFA EURO 2008′
qualifying Group A after comfortably defeating ten-man
Armenia in Belgrade.
Penalty miss
After a first-half penalty miss by Marko Panteliæ, the
home side rallied in the second period and another
spot-kick, this time converted by Dejan Stankoviæ, and
headers from Danko Lazoviæ and Nikola Zigiæ either
side of Rafael Nazaryan’s dismissal preserved Serbia’s
perfect home record since becoming an independent
nation. Serbia’s four games have reaped ten points,
two more than second-placed Finland, while Armenia are
being kept off the foot of the table by Azerbaijan.
Packs shuffled
Both coaches shuffled their packs following their
games on Saturday, when Serbia defeated Belgium and
Armenia held Finland, and unsurprisingly it was the
home side who enjoyed all of the early dominance with
Zigiæ going close inside the opening 45 seconds. The
tall striker was involved again in the 12th minute,
winning a penalty after being felled by Robert
Arzumanyan. Panteliæ was assigned spot-kick duties but
could only blast his effort over the bar.
Second-half goals
The Hertha BSC Berlin striker nearly made amends three
minutes later, only for a fine shot from range to
cannon to safety off the post. Serbia had to wait
until the 54th minute to finally get the better of
goalkeeper Gevorg Kasparov after he became the second
Armenian to foul Zigiæ in the area. Stankoviæ made no
mistake with the penalty, slotting it into the bottom
left-hand corner. Lazoviæ made the game safe when
heading in Ivica Dragutinoviæ’s 62nd-minute cross,
before Zigiæ scored the goal his performance deserved
deep into added time.
uefa.com