FC Pyunik and Dinamo Minsk will resume their battle in the first qualifying round of the 2024-25 Champions League when they meet for the second leg at Republican Stadium on Tuesday.
The tie still hangs in the balance after these sides played out a goalless first leg and the winner of this match will move on to face either Ludogorets or Dinamo Batumi in the next round.
Match preview
© Reuters
With a capacity of around 15,000 seats, the Republican Stadium is expected to see a full house in midweek after Pyunik announced that it would be providing fans with free entry for this match.
However, most of those who are going to attend this match, and watched the first leg, will be hoping that this week's encounter will provide a little more action than they saw last week.
In neutral Hungary, Pyunik recorded just six shots at goal and were starved of possession for large spells. They were forced to play much of the game on the counterattack and managed to win only a single corner, while they were not caught offside a single time across the 90, illustrating their lack of attacking threat.
Nevertheless, the result extended the Armenian champions' unbeaten record in all competitions to 10 matches and was the first time the side failed to find the back of the net since a 1-0 domestic cup defeat to Ararat-Armenia at the start of April.
That defeat also happened to be the only one that Eghishe Melikyan's side have conceded on home soil in their last 15 games, while the remaining 14 saw the side claim 10 victories and four draws.
Meanwhile, last week's stalemate means that Dinamo Minsk have it all to do on Tuesday evening, and will have the task of breaking down the hosts' defence, which has not conceded a goal in over 400 minutes of football.
The Bisons, despite firing a total of 15 shots at goal in the first leg, only managed five on target, none of which looked likely to get past Henri Avagyan in the opposition goal.
That result brought an end to Vadim Skripchenko's side's seven-match winning streak across all competitions, although they are still unbeaten in 11 and have not lost an away game since early May.
Regardless of the outcome here, it has been an incredible last 18 months for Minsk, who won the Belarusian Premier League for the first time since 2004-05 last season. If they do manage to win this match, it will give them a huge boost to take back to the domestic league competition which recommences at the start of August.
Team News
© Reuters
New signing Agdon started in attack in the first leg but was taken off in the second half for another new arrival in Joao Paredes, and we could see the latter given the start this week.
Centre-forward Luka Juricic is still the only known injury absentee for the hosts and he is expected to remain sidelined for a while longer as continues his recovery from knee surgery.
Trofim Melnichenko was deployed in attack in place of the injured Pavel Sedko last week, but he had a fairly quiet evening and was eventually substituted in the second half.
Steven Alfred came off the bench to make his debut for the club after his arrival from Maccabi Herzliya last week and could receive the nod to lead the line from the start in this one.
FC Pyunik possible starting lineup:
Avagyan; De Souza, Vakulenko, Bratkov, Juninho; Cociuc, Otubanjo, Udo; Davidyan, Paredes, Carabello
Dinamo Minsk possible starting lineup:
Lapoukhov; Pigas, Palitsevich, Hawrylovich, Oliveira; Shkolik, Selyava, Demchenko; Podstrelov, Melnichenko, Zherdev
We say: FC Pyunik 1-0 Dinamo Minsk
Having maintained a clean sheet last week, Pyunik have put themselves in a strong position heading into the home leg. We are expecting the hosts to play on the front foot much more than we saw last week and fancy that they could edge the result.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
