UEFA Europa League
"Due to finishing 2nd the season before I came, Pyunik qualified for the UEL 1st Qualifying Round. The board wanted me to learn from my participation in the UEL, and since the highest an Armenian team has reached in the UEL was Mika in the 2nd QR back in 2010, I set myself a goal of at least the 2nd QR, and if possible reach the 3rd QR. I will update you on each round alone, so then the draw for the 1st QR came out and it read..."
1st Qualifying Round
Pyunik Yerevan vs. KFK Siauliai
"A team from Lithuania, we should coast past this", I whispered to myself... and we did.
2 goals from Mkrtii and a goal from our captain Artak Yedigaryan, we won 3-0 at home. In the away game, it was much worse for KFK as they were battered 5-1 in front of their home fans, with Vartan Panosyan scoring 2 goals to complete the rout in our 8-1 aggregate win.
"Next up, I wanted an easy team. I really had the urge to go quite far in this tournament, and the draw on the screen read "Pyunik Yerevan vs. (blank)", we started the 1st leg at home, but against who?"
2nd Qualifying Round
Pyunik Yerevan vs. Metalurh(g) Donetsk
"Metalurh Donestk, from Ukraine... Is this a tough game, or not?", I looked up their last season, they finished 7th in the Ukrainian League and were the runner-ups in the Ukrainian Cup. "Definitely better than our team, should be a tough game", I said, worryingly.
"Kamo Hovannisyan, the lad had his games, and this game was on of them. He opened up the scoring in the 18th minute and I jumped into the air! I was shocked! Until my only foreign player, Mohammad Diallo scored in the 35th minute to put us 2-0 up! We won the home game 2-0, and I was pumped up for the away game... which I won. Vardan Bakalyan, my newest signing, scored the lone goal to give us the 3-0 aggregate win. We have made Armenia proud by reaching the 3rd QR on our first try, although Gandzasar Kapan, Shirak Gyumri AND Ulisses FC Yerevan were there with us! 4 Armenian teams in the 3rd QR, way to raise up our CoEfficient and Comptetition Ranking!"
3rd Qualifying Round
"The draw had already said we would play against St. Pats Athletic (Ireland) or JK Narva Trans from Estonia, I had already dreamt of us being in the play-offs, because we ended up playing against JK Narva Trans, here is how it went:
(H) Won 2-0
(A) Won 5-1
Vardan Bakalyan scoring a hat-trick in the away game to lead us to the play-off round."
Play-Off Round
There were still 4 Armenian teams left, but who could make it to the group stage?
"We had to face Sheriff Tiraspol, of Moldova. Away game first, home game second. A game we were heavily expected to lose, for some reason. Popovici scored for Sheriff in the 7th minute, and I expected it to go downhill from there. 'Gukha' cancelled out Popovici's goal in the 43rd minute and I expected it to stay that way. We had 3 minutes of added time and I didn't expect any more goals and I was happy with an away goal until Gukha scored a fantastic goal to take us closer to the Group Stages! The home game was tough, and long. Although it ended 0-0, with us reaching the Group Stages along with Ulisses FC Yerevan and Gandzasar Kapan. Shirak didn't make it, which explains why they weren't as inconsistent as us in the league."
Group Stages
Stuttgart (Germany)
Genk (Belgium)
Partizan (Serbia)
Pyunik (Armenia)
Not the hardest group but certainly not the easiest.
vs. Genk (H)
Goals:
Gorius '35, Genk (penalty)
Tatinsyan '39, Pyunik
2nd Half:
Gukha '54, Pyunik
"I told the team to contain Genk. We couldn't as Benji De Ceulaer scored in the 76th minute as expected... but what I didn't expect was for him to score again a few minutes later to win them the game. My admiration for Benji went down by alot."
vs. Partizan (A)
Haroyan '7, Pyunik
Mkrtii '13, '49, Pyunik
Milisavljevic '56, Partizan
Markovic '82, Partizan
"They were poor, a vital 3 points away from home."
vs. Stuttgart, Home and Away games.
"They defeated us 1-0 in both games, which left us with 3 points in 4 games. A win against Partizan and Genk would take us to the next round and I believed it was all possible."
vs. Genk (A)
"We got off to an amazing start! Bakalyan scored for us in the first minute! I was overjoyed!"
Goal: Bakalyan, Pyunik, '1, 1-0
"Diallo scores a penalty! 2-0 up!! YESSS!!! Our dream is still alive!"
Goal: Diallo, Pyunik, '20, Penalty, 2-0
"Voskanyan heads it into his own goal. Poor, poor."
Goal: Voskanyan Own Goal, Genk, '45, 2-1
"Mkrtii! I love you! 3-1 up!"
Goal: Mkrtii, Pyunik, '45+1, 3-1
"Don't lose this lads, CONTAIN!"
Goal: Vossen, Genk, '57, 3-2
"YES! VOSSEN OFF! KEEP IT UP LADS!"
Red Card: Vossen, Genk, '77, 3-2
"...for F*CK'S SAKE! WHAT THE BLOODY F*CK WAS THAT! MY GOODNESS! YOU BASTARD KOSKANYAN!" I... "whispered" to myself.
Goal: Barda, Genk, '90+3, 3-3
"A draw which ended our hopes of qualifying for the next round. How unlucky. Genk, always scoring late goals. I hate it."
vs. Partizan (H)
"I didnt really care about this match, and we lost 2-1, and we helped Partizan qualify instead of those Belgian c*nts who kicked us out! Ulisses and Gandzasar also didn not qualify from their respective groups, and our CoEfficient ranking has risen to 7.875, so hopefully that means our league will rise through the rankings! The new season is coming and I will update you soon, goodbye for now!"
3-0
Norayr Gyozalyan ('23), Vardan Bakalyan ('66, '70)
Arthur Yuspashyan, David Hakobyan
Vardan Bakalyan
2-2
4-2