Experimental Armenia squad loses to Belarus — 1:2

On March 29 in Yerevan, the Armenia national team lost 1–2 to Belarus in a home friendly match.

The visitors opened the scoring in the 8th minute through Yevgeny Yablonsky. In the second half, Herman Barkovsky doubled Belarus’ advantage in the 72nd minute. Armenia managed to respond only late in the match: in the 88th minute, Vahan Bichakhchyan converted a penalty to set the final score.

Several players made their debuts for Armenia in this match: Julio Bueno, Narek Hovhannisyan, Finn Geragusian, Karlen Hovhannisyan, and Artur Askaryan all featured for the national team for the first time.

Vahan Bichakhchyan was the standout player for the hosts. He started on the right wing and moved into central midfield after halftime. Most attacking plays went through him, as teammates trusted him with difficult balls. However, his efforts were not enough to secure a positive result.

For Egishe Melikyan’s team, this match served as an important experiment. A new 4-2-3-1 formation was tested with Georgiy Harutyunyan and Tigran Avanesyan in defensive midfield. Substitutes Gor Manvelyan and Artur Serobyan significantly improved the team’s play.

Despite some promising periods, the team showed noticeable imbalance, largely due to the number of debutants and the absence of key midfielders Ugochukwu Iwu and Eduard Spertsyan.

Finn Geragusyan’s debut is also worth noting. He came on midway through the second half and had a good chance after a cross from Tiknizyan but shot just over the bar.

Armenia lineup
Armenia (4–2–3–1)
Henry Avagyan — Kamo Hovhannisyan (C), Julio Bueno, Sergey Muradyan (77, Stepa Mkrtchyan), Nair Tiknizyan — Georgiy Harutyunyan (77, Artur Askaryan), Tigran Avanesyan (64, Karlen Hovhannisyan) — Vahan Bichakhchyan, Karen Nalbandyan (46, Artur Serobyan), Narek Hovhannisyan (64, Gor Manvelyan) — Grant-Leon Ranos (64, Finn Geragusian)

Melikyan: “We are on the right path, but we lacked finishing against Belarus”