Epress.am News from Armenia
The last Armenian football club still in the running in the European leagues, FC Mika, on Thursday lost 0-1 to visiting team Vålerenga in the second qualifying round of UEFA Europa League and lost the chance to continue to the next round. Mika lost to Vålerenga with the same score a week ago when the Norwegian team hosted the Yerevan football club.
Mika kept their net well protected in the first half (with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s presence in the stadium); however, at the start of the second half, Freddy Dos Santos scored the only goal of the game, at the 49th minute. Till the end of the match, the home team had two to three opportunities to score, but they failed to convert any goal-scoring opportunities. The Norwegians, in turn, didn’t exert much effort in increasing their advantage and seemed to be satisfied with the minimum win.
Note, four Armenian football clubs — Pyunik, Banants, Ulysses and Mika — in European championships played 8 matches, 7 of which they lost and in 1 case (Banants) the match was a draw. All the Armenian teams were left out of the first rounds they participated in, scoring 2, but missing 18 balls.
After this year’s unsuccessful performances, Armenia finds itself in 50th place in the 2012 UEFA Country Ranking list, ahead only of the Faroe Islands, Andorra and San Marino.