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Thursday 23 August 2007

Armenia vs Portugal Euro 2008: Draw which equals to Victory


Another great day for Armenian football!

I am extremely happy to witness continuous resurgence of Armenian football. Well done, guys! Congrats to all of us! It is delightful to see the kind of confidence and quality which was displayed by our national team against world class footballers. Do not be surprised if in time you read world media's shock of Armenia's draw or defeat like they do it now for current favourites. You never know with Armenia :)

Here are just some of the headlines which caught my eyes:

Goal.com
Qualifier Report: Poor Portugal Held By Animated Armenia
A great move from Cristiano Ronaldo saved Portuguese honour in Erevan as the visitors suffered an early goal and only harvested a meagre point from their away fixture. The result is a let-down for Scolari and his men and postpones Portugal's chances of making it through to Switzerland and Austria next year... A bad day for Portugal that delays the long-awaited classification for the Euro 2008 and leaves Coach Felipão stewing in his own juice.

Sky Sports
Cristiano Ronaldo partially saved Portugal's blushes in Armenia
Prior to kick-off and Portugal had hoped victory against Armenia would push them closer to Euro 2008 qualifying Group A leaders Poland, but a 1-1 draw on their travels will be deemed a hugely disappointing result. And it could have been so much worse, for on 12 minutes, Armenia had the temerity to take the lead courtesy of Robert Arzumanyan's surprise opener.

Sporting Life
Portugal's star-studded team could not overcome their eastern European counterparts in the second half as Armenia held on for their third surprise result in a row, having defeated Kazakhstan and Poland in the last set of fixtures.

AP
"The draw is a logical result for the match," Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. "We definitely came here to win, but Armenia played quality soccer today."

"Today it was a beautiful evening for Armenian soccer,"
Armenia coach Ian Porterfield said.

In the meantime, as Arsineh pointed out in Life in Armenia, "It feels great to be Armenian today. That's all I have to say. Armenians from all around the world and Armenia itself filled the streets of Yerevan to celebrate together... drums and tamborines, even metal ashtrays were used as make-shift noise makers. Amazing! Even the seed stand guy was all smiles and chatty tonight."

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