Pyunik Yerevan gave Dan Petrescu reason to ‘gloat’ after beating CFR Cluj in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round. The Armenian champions proved that their victory over the Gruia club was no accident and also beat Dudelange in the second preliminary round.
Pyunik Yerevan gives Dan Petrescu a hard time
The performance of the Armenians is all the more commendable as they lost the home game 0-1. However, they had a dream match in Luxembourg and won 4-1. In the third preliminary round, Pyunik Yerevan will face Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade.
Thus, the Armenian champions continue to play against teams that have overtaken CFR Cluj in the preliminary rounds of European cups in recent years. Dudelange eliminated the Cluj team in 2018, after their first title in this series of 5 consecutive Europa League. At that time, the Portuguese Toni Conceicao was on the bench of the Ardelene team. The Luxembourg team then won both legs.
Also last summer, under Marius Șumudică, CFR Cluj left the Europa League in the play-offs after facing Red Star Belgrade. And the Serbs beat Cluj in both games, 4-0 in Belgrade and 2-1 in Cluj-Napoca. After the second leg, following a monster locker room scandal, Șumudică and president Marian Copilu quit the CFR.
Following this qualification, Pyunik Yerevan secured their place in the group stage of the Conference League. This is exactly the same situation CFR Cluj found themselves in last season. Back then, the Romanian champions reached the Champions League third preliminary round after beating Borac Banja Luka and Lincoln Red Imps, but lost in the third round to Young Boys Bern. Subsequently, CFR also lost in the Europa League play-offs and reached the Conference League group stage. There they played against AZ Alkmaar, Randers and Jablonec and finished in last place.
The CFR coach insisted that the Armenians are a strong team.
The fact that Pyunik Yerevan also passed Dudelange and qualified for the third preliminary round of this year’s Champions League could be one more reason for Dan Petrescu to justify his premature departure from the competition. The CFR coach was mocked in Romania for praising the Armenians ahead of the direct confrontation. And now he has one more argument in his analysis.
Besides the Armenian champions, Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets Razgrad, Sheriff Tiraspol, Viktoria Plzen and Midtjylland also secured their place in the Champions League third qualifying round on Tuesday. Wednesday’s games are Bodo/Glimt vs Linfield, Fenerbahçe vs Dinamo Kyiv, Malmo vs Zalgiris Vilnius, Zurich vs Qarabag, Slovan Bratislava vs Ferencvaros and Olympiakos vs Maccabi Haifa.
Full results of Tuesday night’s Champions League second qualifying round matches
AEK Larnaka (Cyprus) – Midtjylland (Denmark) – 2-2 on aggregate, 2-3 after penalties
Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) – HJK (Finland) – 7-1 on aggregate
Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) – Maribor (Slovenia) – 1-0 on aggregate
Dudelange (Luxembourg) – Pyunik Yerevan (Armenia) – 2-4 over the whole of the two matches
Shamrock Rovers (Ireland) – Ludogorets (Bulgaria) – 2-4 on aggregate
Skopje (Macedonia du Nord) – Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) – 2-3 on aggregate
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