Minnows No More

[EvilDave]

Back in 2010, a mysterious man known only as Stoehrst challenged the members of a little-known gaming forum to achieve greatness on a simulation game  by the name of Football Manager for the sake of a good yarn. The initial post was lengthy and detailed, but the gist of it was simple – take a club team from one of the nations in Europe that had never had a representative into the group stages of the Champions League, and get them there.

At the time, the list of eligible nations was reasonably lengthy, and hailing from a country of that description was no great shame. However, over the past seven years, the number of available countries has dwindled, increasing the difficulty of the challenge – never formally completed on that particular forum – and giving those nations who remained eligible a certain stigma.

If one were to extend the criteria, making the challenge more exacting, it would undoubtedly be more difficult to achieve this with a club from a nation which had never achieved group stage participation in the second-tier Europa League, or old UEFA Cup, let alone the Champions League. To be a footballing nation that had failed to get even this far was little short of embarrassing, and ranked you as one of the world game’s true ‘minnows.’

To be a minnow is no great thing – unless you are hoping to win the support of neutral followers out of sheer sympathy. A minnow is a fish that nobody hopes to catch, a pitiful mite of a creature valued not for its beauty, value or flavour. A minnow is to be tossed back into the water from whence it came, forgotten about in an instant and discarded in favour of more appealing fare.

To give an indication of the company these minnow nations were keeping, a list of the nations no longer eligible for such a challenge might include the following:

Kazakhstan – FK Astana reaching the Champions League in 2015 and 2017
Azerbaijan – FK Qarabag doing the same in 2017
Moldova – Sheriff Tirapol making the Europa League as early as 2009
Latvia – Ventspils reaching the same group stage in the same year
Albania – Skenderbeu matching them in 2015
Georgia – Dinamo Tbilisi recording a UEFA Cup appearance back in 2005
Ireland – Shamrock Rovers making Irish history in 2011

None of the nations listed above could legitimately count themselves European superpowers, or even anything close – as much as the Irish fans might wish to think themselves the best in the world, their teams were far from it. To hammer home the point, allow me to list the complete cohort of still-qualifying nations:

Liechtenstein
Iceland
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Estonia
Lithuania
Montenegro
Armenia
Malta
Luxembourg
Northern Ireland
Wales
Faroe Islands
Gibraltar
Andorra
San Marino
Kosovo

A brief scan of the list allows us to make a few observations. Some nations – Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina – have barely been independent long enough to have had a chance at qualification. Wales and Northern Ireland suffer from the presence, popularity and prizes on offer in England. Estonia and Lithuania remain young nations, Iceland and Malta have limited island populations (and in Iceland’s case will surely make it soon), while the others – Liechtenstein, San Marino, Andorra, Gibraltar, Luxembourg and the Faroes – are either microstates or even less, and can hardly hope for sporting glory.

The odd nation out? Armenia, my homeland. Yes, we share in the youth of our post-Soviet brothers, but as a nation we are one of the oldest in the world. Yes, we have a limited population, but no smaller than the likes of Georgia or Moldova. If Azerbaijan has achieved something and Armenia has not, something has gone horribly wrong, and that something is football. Our professional league system has been reduced to just six teams – mercifully soon to expand to eight in order to retain UEFA credibility – our national team is falling through the rankings like a stone, and it was an Armenian club who suffered the first ever defeat to Gibraltarian opponents in UEFA competition. We are an embarrassment to ourselves.

Well, I was going to fix that. I, Tigran Zakaryan, intended to lead Armenia out of this tiny pond of minnows we found ourselves in. Into the wide ocean of European football, to hold our own against the big fish and lurking sharks that would hope to devour us whole. We would do a bit of damage of our own, and make them think twice about trying again. Especially the Azeris.

I had a plan, and it was simple. After working through my various coaching badges, I was to take the helm of Pyunik Yerevan, our most historically successful and yet presently pathetic side, and would deliver Armenia to the Champions League group stage. Using only Armenian players. And until we reached the Europa League groups, using only our own youth system – we needed to earn the right to throw our weight around. Consistent European success was the name of the game - we were to cement a place among Europe's elite, not become a mere flash in the pan and answer to trivia questions.

This would be no easy journey, no walk in the park. This was a project that could take decades, even a lifetime. Thankfully, it was a lifetime I was prepared to give. No more would Armenia be counted among the minnows of Europe. Not as long as Tigran Zakaryan had anything to say about it.
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It's another year, and so here is another EvilDave story! Played on FM17, this is something I've always fancied taking on and, thanks to an Instant Result skin, is something that I now have the time to do. I'm effectively playing the first half of this challenge with Pyunik, and as there is only one playable league in Armenia, beginning with the club predicted bottom of the league. We could be some time, so sit back and enjoy the ride! 

[neilhoskins77]

How have I never seen this challenge? It looks a lot of fun, not to mention a real project. Good luck ED

[mark wilson27]

3 hours ago, neilhoskins77 said:

How have I never seen this challenge? It looks a lot of fun, not to mention a real project. Good luck ED

Good luck with this Ed, always good to see a new story from yourself and a challenge is always good. @neilhoskins77 at one point we used to do a regular challenge and see who went furthest etc but as time went by these seemed to dwindle

[EvilDave]

Thanks chaps (Neil - I've replied to your PM) - this could be a long one. On the one hand I sort of miss the days of FMS Challenges as there were some great ideas, but on the other it does force people down similar paths. I like this one as the possibilities are nice and varied, especially with all the bonus leagues available these days. A chance to scratch my former Soviet itch!
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2016/17

The first year was supposed to be the hardest. We were supposed to finish rock bottom of the table, sixth out of sixth and embroiled in a relegation fight – if, or course, the league had relegation places. Which it doesn’t. A 4^th place finish the previous season would be enough for us to have a shot at the Europa, but with no signings and having to enter in the very first round of qualifying – along with the other ‘minnows’ – we would surely be back in Yerevan before the big boys even returned from their holidays.

Let’s start in Europe then, because they were wrong. The first round handed us one of the longest journeys an Armenian side could possibly face, sending us away to Bala Town of Wales, another nation yet to make a mark in either of UEFA’s competitions. This was, in the eyes of the bigger clubs, a car crash of a draw, the equivalent of awkwardly watching on as two grown men who had clearly had too much to drink threw sloppy punches at one another until one fell down from exhaustion. There would be a winner, but it would not be pretty.

We proved them wrong. By half time in the first leg in Yerevan, we were three goals to the good and cruising, Hovhannes Poghosyan hitting a hat-trick in my first competitive game as managers and leaving the Welsh outfit wishing they hadn’t bothered coming. A late consolation goal was annoying but far from fatal, and we had a foot in the second round already. A lengthy trip to Wales saw a 2-0 win for good measure, and we were through. Nobody would take any notice outside of Armenia, but already we were making something resembling progress.

That progress would surely be stunted by an Austrian club though, no? Admira Wacker Modling were no Red Bull Salzburg, but they were a class above my humble Armenians and would be looking to run us into the ground. After an hour of our away leg, the predictions looked to be coming true, as a fourth home goal left us trailing in the dust. However, they had reckoned without our fighting spirit, and two late strikes were to prove crucial. Back in touching distance and with away goals in the bank we could afford to go for us back at home, and a goal early in each half from Razmik Hakobyan, combined with a deflected free kick for good measure, gave us a famous 3-0 win and 5-4 aggregate progression. We were the shock of the round, and looking good.

Until the draw for third qualifying, which handed us French ‘sleeping giants’ Saint Etienne. Without a league title since the Bronze Age, they were nevertheless the darlings of football hipsters the world over, and their goalless draw in Yerevan was no doubt cheered with great irony and brightly-coloured chinos. Such trousers were in abundance as we journeyed to France and upset the panier de pommes by daring to take an early lead. By the interval we were 2-1 behind, but with the away goal we had a chance.

We took it too, Poghosyan striking midway through the second half to give us the edge on a technicality, and it was enough to send the craft beer brigade into meltdown. As Saint Etienne flooded forward we dropped deep, intercepted and launched a clinical counter, which ended with a fizzing cross from one wing to the other and a calm back post finish. We had kicked one of the biggest dogs in the draw, and were now just one tie away from breaking Armenia’s Europa League duck.

Alas, it was not to be – Krasnodar were geographically one of the preferential draws on offer for us, but our young Russian opponents were hungry to forge their own history and blew us apart north of the Caucasus, netting thrice and keeping a clean sheet to boot. With nothing to work with at home and less to lose, we gave a decent account of ourselves with a 1-1 draw, but it was the Russians who took their place in the group stages. Of course there was a hint of disappointment, but we would be back. I’d make sure of it.

[EvilDave]

On the home front, we were supposed to play our part by propping up the Bardrazguyn Khumb table, and doling out the points to our opponents time after time – with just six teams competing, we’d be playing everyone else no less than six times for our 30 games. Nobody in the national media had given us a hope in their pre-season previews, especially given our non-existent transfer policy, although one or two of them did have the sense to review their estimations having watched our escapades on the continent.

While our cup journey came to an early end, knocked out at the first hurdle – accurately but somewhat misleadingly labelled the quarter final – by eventual winners Gandsazar, the league was a different story altogether. With Poghosyan and Hakobyan forming a lethal partnership upfront and our defence largely holding firm, it took until the 10^th match of the season before we tasted defeat, an awful 4-1 beating at Banants. Before them however, we had already beaten every other side in the league at least once, sitting five points clear of second-place Shirak with six wins and three draws to our name. It wouldn’t last, they said. I begged to differ.

Another defeat – this time at home, 1-0 to Alashkert – came in the next set of fixtures, but as it was accompanied by three wins and a fourth draw of the season, I was none too concerned. Indeed, by the time we rolled around to early December and the start of the long winter break, we were already a staggering 12 points clear of the chasing pack, Banants and Shirak the two sides closest to us but a long way away from challenging. Not bad for a side expected to embarrass themselves at every step of the way.

Of course it would all be for nothing if we were not able to hold on and finish the job, and we could not allow ourselves to be distracted – not even by the arrival of the latest batch of youth graduates. They signed their contracts too late to be registered for the current campaign – a shame, as it would have been useful to blood one or two early – but while there was no obvious world-beater in the bunch, there was significant potential and plenty for us to tap into in years to come.

On the field, back-to-back wins upon resumption stretched our lead to 18 with two thirds of the season gone, but it was then that we hit our first bump in the road. Having only lost two games all season to this point, we fell 0-1 at struggling Ararat, were hammered 3-0 at home by Alashkert, and then lost a thriller of a game 3-2 at Gandsazar. No points from a possible nine, second place Banants our next visitors – were we about to undo all our good work?

No. A Poghosyan hat-trick was the difference as we edged our primary chasers 3-2 in game 24, and three matches later one of our best away displays of the season saw us beat Alashkert 3-0 in their own back yard and claim the title with three games to spare, Banants losing 5-2 at Gandsazar to give us an unassailable advantage. The celebrations were as long as they were unexpected, and next year our European run would at least begin in the Champions League. Not the ideal dwelling place of a minnow.

We ran through the rest of the campaign quickly, our W17 D8 L5 record leaving us with 59 points, a whopping 17 clear of Banants in second and 19 ahead of Alashkert in the bronze medal position. It had been a processional victory in the end, a stroll to success by the least-fancied club in the country. Next year there would be two more clubs joining us in the top flight – even purer minnows in Kotayk and Erebuni – but my expectation would be that we repeat the trick. Anything less than the title was now a backward step, and one we could not afford, not least because Armenia only held one spot in the Champions League preliminaries. This needed to be the start of a dynasty, and I would allow no other outcome.

[tenthreeleader]

I miss Stoehrst. Good writer, and obviously writer of a good challenge.

Good luck with this, Dave, sounds like you'll need it!

[EvilDave]

Thanks 10-3 - it looks like it might take a fair old while, but I'm here for the long haul!
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2017/18

With a league title under our belts and the moniker of champion, we would be marked men in domestic competition, with everyone keen to get one over on the top dogs from the previous season. However, before we could get to the clichéd ‘bread and butter’ of the league campaign, we had another opportunity to break Armenia’s European duck, beginning in the somewhat insulting first round of Champions League qualifying. Only the champions of the eight weakest leagues were thrown in here, and for the time being, that included Armenia.

It also included San Marino, but La Fiorita – the champions of the Most Serene Republic – were no match for our firepower. The away leg saw us return home with a 4-1 advantage, and another hat-trick back at home from Poghosyan secured our progress with a thumping 8-1 aggregate scoreline. We were far too good for this round of competition, and in future years UEFA would recognise as much.

In the second round, we were drawn with one of the toughest opponents possible. Having dodged BATE Borisov of Belarus, we were matched with Maccabi Tel-Aviv and a trip to Israel, although not before facing them at home. A dull goalless affair in Yerevan meant everything was riding on our trip to Tel-Aviv, and two goals inside the opening 20 minutes for the hosts looked to be sending us out. Again, they had reckoned without Poghosyan. A deft volley after 63 minutes and a skidding drive just five later pulled us level on the night and ahead on away goals, leaving Maccabi needing a third. They didn’t get it, and we’d pulled off another upset. We were rapidly losing our minnows tag.

Our Champions League adventure came to a skidding halt in the third qualifiers, Olympiakos the highest ranked team available to us and so inevitably granted our number. 0-1 in Yerevan brought no shame on our side, and a matching result in Piraeus saw the Greeks through comfortably while keeping our dignity intact. We were tough to beat, even if the Champions League wouldn’t be coming to Armenia this year.

However, the loss meant a drop into the final qualifying play-off for the Europa, and more Russian opposition. Akhmat Grozny were not of the same calibre as last year’s conquerors Krasnodar, and a battling 2-2 draw at home – Poghosyan again on the scoresheet – gave us hope for the home leg. Terek led twice, twice we pegged them back, and extra time beckoned. Scoreless in the extra 30, we were left to penalties – and we prevailed. Captain and defensive rock Aram Shakhnazaryan tucked home the winning kick after Magomed Mitrishev struck the post, and for the first time ever an Armenian side had group stage European football to boast about. It had taken us just two years for the breakthrough.

[EvilDave]

In the group stages, we were of course a fourth and final seed, a fact reflected as we became the final side to be drawn. Placed in Group L, we would have a tough task on our hands to get anything, and indeed were predicted to come dead last in a group with French giants Lyon, Portuguese challengers Braga, and Czech outfit Slovan Liberec. Some media outlets even went as far as to predict that we would break records for goals conceded – they had evidently not been watching our qualification games.

We had forced them to eat their words by the end of the first 90 minutes. Braga were the first visitors to Yerevan in ‘proper’ European competition, and they left with stories of unbeatable Armenian defenders, midfielders with infinite energy and clinical finishing. Poghosyan and Hakobyan scored twice each in one of the club’s greatest ever victories, giving us three more points than anyone expected and an early spot on top of Group L.

By the time we had been to Lyon in matchday two however, our goal difference advantage had been wiped out. Led by Arsenal target Alexandre Lacazette’s hat-trick, the French side ran riot against our youthful side, smashing five past Gor Manukyan and leaving us only a late own goal as consolation. It was a sobering experience, but one we would have to learn from quickly.

Following up from such a heavy defeat would not be eays, but Slovan Liberec were the weakest team in the group and so ripe for points to be taken. However, while we rediscovered our attacking ability, netting three times in just 10 second-half minutes, we could do nothing about our defensive failings. By the time our third went in the hosts had three of their own, and deep into time added on a contentious penalty condemned us to a thrilling but ultimately dissatisfying 4-3 defeat. With half the fixtures played we sat second – Lyon with a perfect nine points, everyone else with three – but knew we would need better if we were to somehow stay in Europe after Christmas.

The first return fixture was Slovan’s visit to Liberec, and on home soil we were much improved. An early Czech goal had us rocking, but Poghosyan replied almost instantly to calm our nerves. A second half penalty was tucked home by the same man to put us in the driving seat, and as the visitors pushed for a leveller we hit them on the break, a low cross deflected beyond the visiting goalkeeper to wrap up a 3-1 Pyunik win and give us a fighting chance. We had already exceeded expectations – could we get the win we needed to move on?

Not against Lyon, who took their tally of goals against us to eight in two matches with a comfortable 3-0 win in Yerevan to wrap up a perfect group stage from the French side. However, that result was immaterial – we were through, progressing to the knockout round after an incredible performance in Portugal, breezing past Braga 3-1 for a second win against the hosts and taking us to nine group stages points in our first ever appearance. If there was a question mark hovering over the ‘minnow’ tag beforehand, we had well and truly dispelled it. Minnows do not qualify for knockout stages.

After the winter break we would return to action against Russian opposition for the third time in two season, travelling to Moscow to face the old army side CSKA. With snow still on the ground it was a hard-fought tie, a penalty apiece giving us a 1-1 draw to work with at home. There, in sunnier climes, the Muscovites stepped up their game – but so did we, and with 15 minutes to play we were locked at 2-2, the Russians heading through on away goals only. Unfortunately for us, it was our turn to get hit on the break, and Artur Kartashyan could only begin down Olanare as the Nigerian broke clear. Alan Dzagoev converted from the spot to secure a 3-2 win on the night and 4-3 aggregate progress, bringing an end to our superb run in the competition. We had proved our doubters wrong, and we would be back. I would make sure of it.

[neilhoskins77]

What a fantastic run that is. That would’ve done wonders for the clubs financial state I’m sure. The Armenian sides will now find it very difficult to keep up in the domestic competitions. How has it impacted on the nations club coefficient? Great job mate 

[EvilDave]

Thanks Neil, it certainly was! With wages so low in Armenia it's set us up nicely, although we need some help from other clubs if we're to seriously boost the co-efficient. We no longer have to play the first qualifiers, but otherwise we're in a similar spot to where we were...
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Back at home, we were poor in the cups once again. Alashkert dropped us at the first hurdle in the cup, while our one-off Super Cup clash with Banants saw an entertaining game settled on penalties in favour of our opponents. Given that we had beaten Terek from the spot earlier in the season, I was much happier to be losing this one.

In the league however, we hit the ground running. In fact, we hit the ground at full-blown sprint, breaking league records with a 9-1 thrashing of Erebuni on the opening day. At their ground. Welcome to the big leagues, boys. That was followed by a 5-0 win over fellow newcomers Kotayk, and it looked for a moment as if we would smash through everything before us.

However, our European adventures forced us to rotate the side and play tired players, and while we proved tough to beat, we were dropping points in places we had no right to do so. After seven games – a quarter of the campaign – we actually found ourselves second in the table, locked on points with Ararat and Shirak but behind the latter by virtue of having won four games to their five. I was confident we could pull away, but we needed to stop throwing away points.

We didn’t though, and after tasting league defeat for the first time on matchday 12 – a 1-0 reverse at Gandsazar, we then travelled to Shirak at went down 2-1 there, back-to-back losses dropping us off the top of the table. Our next match – mercifully a victory – brought us to the halfway point of the competition, where we sat a single point behind surprise leaders Ararat and level with both Shirak and Banants. The ace up our sleeve was a game in hand earned from our European jaunts, and so we had every chance of going back to the summit.

We did so quickly, two wins in a week before the winter break putting us two points clear of our fellow Yerevan club, and in pole position to kick on and retain the title. We would be out of Europe by the time the league resumed in March, and without distractions we were clear favourites as the men in possession. With no key players leaving the club in the transfer window, we were in a strong position.

To their credit, Ararat would not be shaken. Our third league meeting of the season ended in a draw, and after 21 games apiece, there were still only three points between us. That Gandsazar were lurking a point further back was also impressive given that we were on an eight-game unbeaten streak, and their very presence told us that we could not afford to slip up. In the last round of fixtures, every game was crucial.

We rose to the challenge. As Ararat faded down the home straight, Hovhannes Poghosyan fired us to glory, finishing with a spectacular record of 48 goals in 47 games, and 33 in 28 league appearances. It was his brace that saw us clinch the title with a 2-0 win over Banants two games before the end of the season, and only his missed penalty that saw us taste defeat for just the third time all season at runners-up Gandsazar the following week. A 1-1 draw at Shirak wrapped up another successful season, our 59 points two more than Gandsazar’s haul and five ahead of Banants in third. Ararat, for so long our nearest challengers, wound up back in fourth place, 11 points off the pace. At the other end of the league, newcomers Kotayk endured one of the worst seasons of professional football ever, winning just one and drawing two of their 28 games. They would not be missed.

Another title meant another go at the Champions League, but this time there would be a difference. Having reached the Europa League groups – and indeed the knockout rounds – I would be delving into the market for the first time. For Armenia to be put truly on the map, we needed a flagship team. For Pyunik to become that flagship team, we needed the cream of Armenian talent available to us. While we were developing our own players very nicely, there were undeniably those who would improve our club playing elsewhere – for our rivals and abroad. If we could assemble them all under the Pyunik banner, we would soon be flying high.

[EvilDave]

2018/19

Having secured Europa League group stage football last season – and then some – we would now move to the next step of our plan: hoovering up the best available Armenian talent. We moved quickly and we moved often, signing no fewer than nine players, a mix of first-teamers and young prospects, as we bolstered both our numbers and the depth available to us.

The men to go straight into the first team were Sergis Adamyan, a potential partner to Poghosyan up front with more technical ability than Hakobyan; David Hakobyan, a flying left winger who could also do a job up front; Artak Yedigaryan, a defensive utility man who would take the holding role and fill in at left back; Arsen Beglaryan, a keeper to rival Gor Manukyan between the sticks; and Tigran Barseghan to rotate with Armen Putulyan on the right wing. Arthur Yuspanyan in defensive midfield, Zhirayr Margaryan at right back, Arsen Abrahamyan at attacking midfield and Karen Hakobyan, a defensive starlet, all joined for backup purposes, the total outlay coming to just £83k. It was a lot for Armenia, but a pittance compared to what we had earned and would again earn from Europe.

Speaking of which, we began this year’s Champions League adventure at the second qualifying stage rather than the first, our previous years’ escapades pushing us out of the minnows’ round. Our campaign would begin in Finland at the home of FC Lahti, who had lifted the Veikkausliga for the first time in their history to qualify. A late strike for the debutant Adamyan edged a narrow 3-2 win for us to bring home to Yerevan, and while we were a little more nervous at home, an early goal from Poghosyan gave us the insurance we needed. A late penalty for the Finns gave them a consolation, but nothing more – we were on to the third round, even if not so convincingly.

Unseeded, we faced the potential for a relative giant to be drawn against us, but we came off relatively lightly. Dodging perennial group stages qualifiers Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb, we instead landed Slovenian champions Maribor, with the first leg away. As in Finland we hit three goals, unlike Finland we conceded just the once, and so after racing into a 2-0 lead just 12 minutes into the home leg, we were as good as done. The Slovenians pulled one back, but we in turn withdrew into a defensive shell which they were unable to penetrate further. Job done, and we had guaranteed group stage football once again.

The side to determine whether it would be Champions League or Europe League were Danish outfit FC Midtjylland, with the Yerevan leg first on this occasion. An early setback turned to joy as Hakobyan and Poghosyan grabbed one each in the last 10 minutes, and we had a narrow lead to take the Denmark. Unfortunately, we lost our shooting boots in transit – just two of our 14 shots troubled the goalkeeper – and at the other end the Danes were clinical. Two goals from six efforts were enough to edge them through, and we settled for the Europa League once again.

Fate was in our favour at the group stage draw, handed us one of the weaker groups as a fourth seed. There would be a particularly Eastern flavour to Group C – Dynamo Kyiv as a top seed, Besiktas as a second, with FC Kobenhavn the only club from outside the old Iron Curtain. Our chances were slim, but they were at least chances.

In matchday one, we took them. 3-1 at home to the Danes got us off to a flying start, a Poghosyan hat-trick grabbing the headlines in what was a superb team performance and the perfect opening to our campaign. We couldn’t match that in Istanbul, Besiktas claiming a 2-0 win on home soil, but it was the double header against Dynamo that got our hopes up. A dramatic late headed equaliser from substitute right back and youth product Gor Afrikyan earned us a 2-2 draw in Kyiv, and then a Poghosyan penalty a 1-0 win at home. With seven points from four games, we were locked in a three-way tie for first place. Only Kobenhavn were out of the running, and we were heading there next.

We came away with another draw, this time 2-2 after blowing a two-goal cushion in the final half hour. That meant we went into the final match, at home to the Turks, able to both top the group and miss out on qualification. We served up a classic, twice levelling in the first half after falling behind, and then taking a surprise lead just minutes in the second period. An unstoppable free kick took it to 3-3 with 20 minutes to go, but a draw between Kobenhavn and Kyiv meant it was enough. Besiktas would go through as group winners, and we would follow them in second place. We were into the knockouts for the second year in a row. Proof, if it were needed, that we were minnows no more.

Once there, we met our demise. Marseille were one of the stronger sides we could have faced, and a 3-1 win for the visitors in Yerevan put the writing on the wall. A 4-0 reverse in France was a little harsh on my men, as was the 7-1 aggregate scoreline, but there was no doubt we had taken steps forward. Last year, we escaped the group with three wins and three defeats. This time we had lost only once, earning points in tough places on the way to last 32. We were making strides in the right direction, and there was always next year.

[EvilDave]

On the domestic front, the cups were a distinct improvement this time round. While we suffered an off day in the Super Cup, going down by a single goal to Gandsazar in what remains a glorified friendly, we got our revenge in the more important competition. The first round pitted us against Banants, a 3-0 away win rendering our goalless home draw somewhat redundant, and we marched on to the semis.

Another strong away performance earned us a 3-1 win in the first leg at Shirak, leaving the Gyumri outfit with an awful lot to do back in the capital. They gave it a good go, but in their search for attacking potency sacrificed defensive solidity, and allowed us the single goal we needed to seal progression. 4-2 on aggregate was a fair reflection of the tie, and we would face Gandsazar in the final.

And, in the one-off encounter, we promptly blew them apart. We were 2-0 up before some fans had even taken their seats, and although our opponents did pull one back, by that point it was academic. A second of the game for Poghosyan and our fourth from the ever-improving Putulyan on the right wing sealed an emphatic 4-1 victory, the first cup win of my reign, and further evidence that we were the nation’s leading side. Gandsazar had not been able to get near us. 

 The same was true in the league as we surged out of the blocks and away from the competition. In the opening round of fixtures we dropped points in just a single match – despite our European commitments being in full flow – as we went down 1-0 at home to Banants, winning the other six for an early five-point lead. Things were already looking ominous for our rivals, and with superior depth allowing us to rotate more freely, there was no looking back.

We would avenge that loss in some style in the second set, travelling across the city to Banants and hitting them for five, a hat-trick from Poghosyan the icing on a truly special cake as we put our rivals in their place. We had slowed down a little by the time we reached the halfway point of the campaign – again, hampered by the Europa League – but four wins and three draws ensured that no-one was about to catch us, pulling out an eight point lead with a game in hand over our nearest competitors.

As if to hammer home the point, the very next match saw us go to Alashkert and go a man down as early as the 24^th minute, Yuspashyan with a horror tackle that rightly earned a straight red. Still, we were undeterred, winning 4-0 despite our disadvantage and sending an emphatic message to the rest of the league. Next up was Gandsazar away before the winter break, and again we won despite a red card, this time Karen Hakobyan collecting two bookings, the 2-1 result moving us 12 points clear at the summit.

By now the title seemed a formality, and there would be only one more defeat before we wrapped it up. After breezing past most of the league with ease, it was a surprise when it came, and even more so that it came to lowly Erebuni, who had only won once prior to their shock 2-1 home win. They were still doomed, but we needed to bounce back quickly. Needless to say we managed it, an injury time from David Hakobyan at Ararat earning a 3-2 win in the final match of the third round to keep us 11 points ahead of the pack.

Next up was the Poghosyan show, our star striker hitting all four in a 4-3 thriller away at Alashkert, and two games later a routine 1-0 win at Shirak was enough for us to claim the trophy with four games to spare, dropped points for Banants at Ararat leaving us 14 points clear. We then switched off, handing victories to Mika and Banants, before regaining our composure and completing the season with wins over Erebuni and Ararat. 12 points was the final margin of victory despite our late complacency, with Banants, Gandsazar and Alashkert taking the Europa League spots and Erebuni doomed to relegation with just 15 points all season. It was annoying to know that we had gifted-wrapped three of them.

Nevertheless, we remained dominant. A double-figure title win and the cup to boot meant that we were in prime position to begin another assault on the Champions League, while at the same time retaining our domestic supremacy. A bigger squad meant more depth, which meant a greater capacity to compete at home and abroad. The Pyunik dynasty was only just beginning, and the next step to take was the holy grail of Champions League football.

[EvilDave]

2019/20

The 2019/20 season was the first that people began to sit up and take notice. Not yet the cream of the European crop, but sides big enough to turn a few heads in Armenia. Vultures hailing from Croatia, Russia and Ukraine all began to circle around our stars – Poghosyan and Karen Hakobyan in particular the subject of bids which, while still derisory, increased over the course of the window. Poghosyan, ever the professional, remained unerringly focused on the task in hand. Hakobyan wanted out, but we needed him here. He wasn’t happy, but he had a contract. He’d have to learn.

Just in case he were to leave, we brought in another holding man to back him up. Teenager Karen Toplakaltsyan arrived from Banants from just £14,000, the second arrival of the summer after veteran forward Artur Sarkisov from the Russian lower leagues. In the winter we again bolstered our youth ranks, 16-year-olds Mher Avetisyan and Aram Boiajyan arriving from Mika and Banants respectively. Our hoovering up policy was beginning to take shape, and would need to continue if we were to become a force in Europe.

Our continental campaign would begin at home to The New Saints of Wales, who were sent scurrying from Yerevan with their tails between their legs. Poghosyan alone scored five as we romped to a 9-1 win in the opening leg, leaving the return game in the UK somewhat redundant. A heavily rotated side netted five more to secure a huge 14-2 aggregate win and thoroughly embarrass the Welsh champions, booking our place in the third round of qualifying without really breaking sweat.

There we were handed a task which took on a huge amount of significance for our nation. Just one year after UEFA’s ban on sides from the two nations meeting was lifted, we were paired with a team from Azerbaijan. And not just any side either – FK Qarabag, a club named after the region our ‘neighbours’ claimed for themselves. They were hassled and harried when arriving in Yerevan, but left with a goalless draw, meaning we would need to go to Baku to get the job done. Falling 2-0 behind after 20 minutes gave us a mountain to claim, but climb it we did – 3-2 ahead by the 65^th minute, a late leveller was meaningless as we headed through on away goals, and escaped Azerbaijan despite the best efforts of the local fans. It was not just a footballing victory, but a political one.

It also earned us a play-off for the group stages, a two-legged tie with Greek giants Olympiakos to determine our fate. At home first, we roared back from an early deficit to take a 2-1 lead at the interval, and a 92^nd minute intervention from new signing Sarkisov gave us a two-goal cushion to take to Greece. Once there, we scored first, but after just half an hour we staring down the barrel – 3-1 down on the night, level on aggregate, and facing a bombardment from the hosts with an hour still go. However, we somehow didn’t crumble, holding parity until the interval and coming out stronger in the second period. As the home team pushed, we pushed back, we countered their thrusts, and ultimately got what we needed, a long ball into the channel cut across by Putulyan and rammed home by Poghosyan. Two goals on the night meant Olympiakos needed another two in 15 minutes, and they couldn’t manage even one. We had done what no Armenian club had ever done before – we were in the Champions League proper.

Once there, we were comfortably the lowest-ranked side in the group stage draw, the fourth seeds everyone wanted to face. We were eventually pulled out in Group F, alongside English giants Arsenal, French contenders Lyon, and Russian champions Zenit. It would be the Russians who would likely give us our best hope of picking up any points, but on what I hoped would be our first of many visits to the competition, this was all about gaining experience.

The fixture list sent us to St Petersburg first up, and the scale of our task was made clear in a 3-0 defeat that was as comfortable as it sounds. Arsenal took a 4-1 win with them away from Yerevan – Poghosyan fittingly netting our first group stage goal – while we put up a better fight in France, two late goals handing Lyon a 2-0 win. Pointless and bottom at the halfway point, we continued in the same vein in the return fixtures. A 3-0 loss at home to the French side was followed by a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Zenit in a taster of what was to come. In London, with nothing to play for but pride, we put up a spirited display, Poghosyan hitting a hat-trick as we scored three for the first time in a Champions League tie. Unfortunately the Gunners hit us for eight in a spectacular encounter, and we finished with a goal difference deficit of 19. Not the best start to life in the big leagues, but that was all it was – a start. We would be back.

[EvilDave]

Back home, our cup exploits would once again show our dominance of the Armenian scene. Paired with Ararat in the first round we won 2-0 on the road to afford our youngsters the chance to impress in the return fixture, a score draw enough to see us move serenely into the final four.

There we met Alashkert, and I foolishly choose to keep faith with the same teenagers who had secured our passage. Unfortunately it backfired, seeing us 4-1 down after the home leg and with a mountain to climb. No matter – in one of the all-time great Armenian football displays, the first team promptly went to Alashkert and reversed the deficit, a 5-2 away win taking us to extra time and penalties, where we prevailed with a 4-2 shootout win. It made our subsequent penalty triumph over Shirak in the final pale in comparison.

With the only slip-up coming in the Super Cup against Gandsazar, we were well set for the league campaign. At least we were until the third game of the season, a routine 3-0 win at Alashkert which would be remembered for all the wrong reason. Toplakaltsyan, making his debut after his summer switch from Banants, went into a tackle slightly awkwardly and didn’t get up again. The diagnosis was not good – damaged cruciate ligaments, and as long as a year on the sidelines. Not the start we wanted.

By the end of the first round of fixtures, we were already five points clear at the summit, our only dropped points coming in a goalless draw away at our nearest challengers Shirak. However, with European fixtures coming thick and fast, players tiring and our rivals pushing, the second quarter of the season was not nearly as productive. Karen Hakobyan’s red card against Banants saw us slump to a 2-1 defeat, two games later we slipped to a 3-1 loss at Gandsazar, and the very next match we lost 2-1 at home to Shirak before making it three in a row against Mika. We would bounce back with a win over Alashkert, but it was clear we needed to improve. Although we held two games in hand, we reached the halfway point in a lowly 4^th place with Gandsazar, Banants and Shirak all ahead of us.

With Europe done, the deficit was quickly removed. Three straight wins before the winter break took us two clear of Shirak and five of Gandsazar, leaving us in an ideal position from which to kick on and lift the title once again. Upon the squad’s return from the break, I gave them a pep-talk to the same effect – if we wanted another crack at the Champions League, we could not afford to let things slip.

Four games later, they had heeded my call – we sat five clear of Shirak with seven to play, and would not look back from there. We would give up just two more points – a goalless draw at Ararat that saw us move into an unassailable lead with two games to spare – and followed it up with two more wins against our nearest rivals Gandsazar and Shirak. The highlight of the run-in was a crazy 6-4 thriller at Kotayk in which Poghosyan bagged five and relegated our rivals, and the title was sealed just two matches later.

What had we learned? Very little that we did not already know – that my Pyunik side was far and away the strongest in Armenia, that we had potential to compete in the Champions League, but that we were not serious contenders for European success yet. I expected ‘yet’ to be the key word. We needed to keep moving forward.

[EvilDave]

2020/21

The following year, our incoming transfer business was made up entirely of teenagers with one exception. Of the eight men – or indeed boys – coming into the side, only Banants and Armenian international left-back Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan was over 18, a positive veteran at 21, and he would go straight into the first team. Others to look out for were 17-year-old holding man Tigran Minasyan, and shadow striker Narek Hambardzumyan, who both joined us from Shirak for a combined £80k.

Leaving us were the first of the old guard, a shift in the squad’s shape beginning to take place. Starting goalkeeper Gor Manukyan was shipped out to Alashkert to be replaced by youth product Karen Mkrtchyan, with striker Razmik Hakobyan leaving for Gandsazar to make room for the likes of the aforementioned Hambardzumyan in the rotation. Also out the door was Artur Yushpanyan, the holding man never quite fitting in since his arrival and struggling for games.

 Into the Champions League we went, and first up was a tie with Estonian champions Levadia. The Tallinn outfit came to Yerevan for our competitive opener, and left on the wrong end of a 4-0 hiding which gave them absolutely no chance of recovering the tie back in the Baltics. A 3-1 away win ensured smooth progression to the next round of qualifiers with the minimum of fuss.

Next up were Steaua Bucharest, the Romanian giants now finding themselves in amongst the also-rans of the European game. Their famous win in 1986 counted for nothing in Yerevan, and despite scoring first – a goal that Mkrtchyan should really have done better with at his near post – they were never truly in the match. It took us just three minutes to level the scores, seven to take the lead through a Karen Hakobyan thunderbolt, and until late in the game to add a third. In Bucharest, we needed just 10 minutes to nullify their away goal, and that was all she wrote – the one-time champions of Europe upset by little Pyunik.

Given our European exploits of recent years, we were now one of the five seeded teams for the qualifying play-off, making us favourites and targets for others. Our rise meant a demotion for Celtic, who would have been the toughest draw, but instead we were paired with Swedish champions Hammarby – a tie we were expected to win. Away in Scandinavia, everything was going wrong for us until the 83^rd minute, trailing 1-0 and struggling to get a foothold. However, a two-footed lunge and an overly-argumentative captain saw the hosts reduced to nine men in the blink of an eye, and Poghosyan was not one to pass up such an opportunity. Victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat, and we took a 2-1 lead back home.

That should have been a routine win, but instead we found ourselves reduced to 10, this time as early as the 12^th minute thanks to Hakobyan’s flailing elbow. That led to a ridiculously open first 45 minutes, the two teams trading goals before the Swedes struck on the stroke of half time to make it 3-2 on the night and give them the advantage. However, even a man down we were not about to sit back and accept our fate, and in the space of 15 second half minutes Poghosyan grabbed the second and third goals of his hat-trick to give us a 4-3 lead in the match and leave Hammarby needing two more. Against 10 men it was a possibility, and indeed they managed one – top scorer Axelsson completing a hat-trick of his own – but with only five minutes remaining it was not enough for the Swedes to find a fifth. 4-4 on the night, 6-5 on aggregate – Pyunik were going to the group stages again.

Once there, we faced the tallest of orders. The lowest seed in Group D, we were once again paired with Lyon, who had beaten us comfortably the previous year. Alongside them however, were Manchester City – who had lifted the trophy in three of the past four years – and Atletico Madrid, who won the remaining competition and had been beaten by the English side in one of the other finals. It was a group of death, and gave us no hope of making it out alive.

The scene was set with a 5-0 drubbing in Madrid on the opening day, and although we gave a much better account of ourselves at home to Lyon – a late Nabil Fekir goal edging the game 2-1 – that would be as good as we got. A goal at the Etihad was meaningless in a 4-1 win, and while we held them to three in the Yerevan return, we would again suffer defeat. At home to Atletico we regained some pride in keeping the scoreline to 2-0, before wrapping things up with another three-goal loss in Lyon.

A pointless return and goal difference of -16 was less than ideal although not entirely unexpected, and we took some small pleasure in seeing our apparent European rivals Lyon also dumped out, their only points of the group the six they took from us. City would go on to make the final again – this time defeated by Paris Saint-Germain in the showpiece – while Atleti reached the final four. We were cementing ourselves as regulars at Europe’s top table, but if we were to make any sort of progress, we would need a far kinder draw in future.

[EvilDave]

Domestically, we were expected to sweep the board once again, and we set out doing so with victory in the annual Super Cup. This time Shirak would provide the opposition, and would not threaten us too much, registering just three shots on goal in a 2-0 defeat which allowed us to reclaim the trophy. It may be a one-off ‘competitive friendly,’ but trophies are still trophies. We want all of them.

In the cup, we suffered a shock reverse at home to Mika in our opening fixtures, Shakhnazaryan’s own goal giving the underdogs a 1-0 lead to take home for the second leg and lead some more hopeful newspapers to suggest we might be past our best. They were wrong – a young side travelled in the second game and raced out to a 3-0 lead before shipping a late consolation, and with a 3-2 aggregate we had proved we could indeed come from behind.

In the semis we again had work to do in the second leg after Alashkert held us to a 2-2 home draw, but again the rotation players had enough about them to win through, two goals and a clean sheet at Nairi putting us in yet another final. Shirak would be the opponents there, and just as things looked to be heading to extra time after a goalless 90 minutes, up pupped Sergis Adamyan against his old club to give us the win and the first leg of a domestic double.

The second part would prove somewhat easier. In the seventh match of the season, at home to Mika, Hakobyan’s indiscipline again got the better of him, leaving us short-handed for the final half hour with the game scoreless. We looked to be sharing the points, but in the second minute of added time Adamyan found the net for a 1-0 win that gave us a perfect record through the opening quarter of the campaign. With our rivals taking regular points off one another, we were already eight points clear and odds-on for the title.

The question then became one of endurance, and how long we could maintain our 100% record. Banants took us close, Mika proved tougher than anticipated, and Shirak even had the audacity to score twice against us, but to no avail. We rounded out the first half of the season with a comfortable 1-0 win away at Alashkert saw us reach the turn with 14 wins from 14 games, a massive 16 points ahead of Shirak. Two more victories kept the Pyunik machine ticking over until the winter break, with the prospect of both a perfect and unbeaten season still very much alive.

Sadly, it was not to be. Resuming at the beginning of March, we welcomed Gandsazar and dropped our first points of the season in a sloppy 1-1 which owed as much to our relative lack of sharpness as it did to our opponents’ performance. That would be evident in the next four fixtures, as we reached the three-quarter mark with four more wins, a record of 20 wins and a solitary draw, and a lead of 20 points over our nearest challengers – if indeed they could be labelled as such. With seven games to play we just needed a single point to retain our crown.

Of course, we got it in the very next game, a routine 2-0 at home to Alashkert rendering Shirak’s win over Mika redundant. With the title wrapped up and the perfect league season no longer possible, we took the opportunity to throw in some of the more promising youth players for the remaining six matches, and what we saw gave us great hope. Yes, we suffered defeat – twice in fact, 1-0 at Ararat in the penultimate game of the year three weeks after coming out on the losing side of a seven-goal thriller against Gandsazar – but there was an abundance of goals, some excellent football, and a seemless transition to first team football for many involved. The future did not look perfect, but it was very promising indeed.

Despite the late blemishes, we still won 25 of our 28 games, finished 22 points clear of Shirak in second place, and saw Hovhannes Poghosyan break the league scoring record with a superb return of 34 goals in just 27 games. Including Europe and the cups he would finish with 44 in 44, earning him unwelcome interest from the Low Countries which was quickly rebuffed. Every single member of the official Team of the Season plied their trade in Pyunik colours, and we now supplied roughly two thirds of the Armenian national team. We were becoming an unstoppable force at home – the next step was to break through in Europe. Continental football after Christmas was the goal, and we would stop at nothing to achieve it.

[EvilDave]

2021/22

I had already been at Pyunik for half a decade, and the vision I had for my sixth season at the helm was the same as the previous five – progress. So far I had taken domestic also-rans and turned them into the toast of Armenia, lifting every league title available to me and taking them from European nobodies to group stage regulars. We had made the Champions League twice in consecutive years, and the aim was to continue making strides on the continent.

After a quiet summer of transfers – we welcomed three teenagers for a total of £400k, prices inflating with each passing year, and sold Yedigaryan to Gandsazar – we began our season against Shamrock Rovers, the first Irish club to reach a UEFA group stage. With their season in full swing, they were impressive in Yerevan, taking a draw and an away goal back to Dublin with them. With our campaign threatening to end before even beginning, I sent my men out in Ireland with the threat of youth team football in the event of failure, and they heeded my warning. Putulyan supplied one for Poghosyan in the first half and one for Adamyan in the second, while the defence kept their sheet clean to send us through. It was closer than it should have been, and I was not pleased.

The next round put us up against Crvena Zvezda, or Red Star Belgrade. Another giant from behind the Iron Curtain, they would meet the same fate as Steaua last year, falling victim to a much-improved performance as we travelled to the Serbian capital. The game was done after 45 minutes of the first leg, and at the full-time whistle the home team had be escorted off the pitch, Hovhannes Poghosyan having put them to the sword with four of our five goals in a thumping 5-1 win. A week later in Yerevan, we shared the goals round in a 4-2 romp, and with an emphatic 9-3 aggregate made our way to the final play-off.

There we would face Sparta Prague for the first team, the Czech making it back to this round after a barren couple of years in Europe. The away leg came first, and the tie turned on a 10-minute spell which began midway through the second half. Robert Hakobyan was pulled up by the referee for an apparent push on Vaclav Prochazka, but Jiri Novotny had reckoned without Karen Mkrtchyan in our goal. Our shot stopper flung himself low and left to claw out the penalty, and minutes later David Hakobyan slid us into a 1-0 lead which we would hold to the whistle. Back home, we traded first half goals to keep things even, conceded a second which would have eliminated us, only for substitute Sarkisov to head us into the group stages with five minutes remaining. We had cut it fine, we had cut it nonetheless.

Into the group stages we went, and this year it was to be Group G for the club the European press insisted on calling underdogs for every match. Evidently it would be a while before we could truly shake the ‘minnow’ label. Compared to group-mates Barcelona and Milan, we were indeed small fry, but we fancied our chances against third seeds Anderlecht. If we could get the better of the two games against the Belgians, post-Christmas football in Europe remained a distinct possibility.

We got off to the best possible start, Aram Shakhnazaryan heading us into a seventh-minute lead from a corner at home to the Belgians. Expecting an onslaught, we instead found ourselves equal to the visitors, and unfortunate not to add to our lead. Three points to begin, and our first ever Champions League win. Yet another landmark we had reached.

Three points alone were unlikely to be enough however, and with back-to-back trips to two of Europe’s most iconic grounds ahead of us, we were soon put in our place. We netted twice at the San Siro, but that was only half as regularly as the Milan side we were up against. At Barcelona, the occasion very much got to my players – the 4-0 defeat all too easy for the Catalan giants.

However, back at home we not only took the lead, but held it for 70 minutes. For the majority of the game, it seemed as it Poghosyan’s poached finish would seal arguably the greatest upset in European football history, only for a Luis Suarez double to crush our dreams late on. Crucially though, we had hope, and even three goals down with 70 minutes on the clock in Belgium, we would not give up. Had we lost, we would have been done. Instead we roared back, a penalty the catalyst and a superb burst of attacking football resulting in three rapid-fire goals to stun Anderlecht and leave us in third place going into the final game.

That would be at home to Milan, and we knew that as long as Anderlecht didn’t go to the Nou Camp and win, we would be into the Europa League knockout stages even with a defeat. We weren’t looking to finish with a whimper though, bouncing back from an early goal to lead 2-1 at the break against the Italian giants. Giacomo Bonaventura was unwilling to give us the fairytale win we craved, but 2-2 against one of the most successful clubs in history was a spectacular result nonetheless. With Barca unsurprisingly defeating the Belgians, we confirmed our third place. The Europa League would continue our continental campaign.

Unfortunately, the knockout draw was unkind, passing up the chance to pair us with fortunate qualifiers and Eastern European outfits and instead handing us two legs against none other than Juventus. That would be where our run came to an end, two respectable performances seeing us go down 2-1 both home and away against our second Italian giant of the year. One day we would go further, but that day was not today. Not yet.

[EvilDave]

Despite our European strides, 2021/22 was more of a struggle on the domestic front for my Pyunik side. Whether down to our additional exertions on the continent – perhaps unlikely given that we played only two extra matches, and those during the Armenian winter break – on perhaps a degree of complacency, we were unable to complete the league and cup double as we had the previous year.

Indeed, even the Super Cup was a struggle. Shirak provided our opposition, and after 90 goalless minutes we were forced into extra time by our rivals, which in itself was a disappointment. While they made little effort to win the game in the extra 30 minutes, it was frustrating to watch us fail to break them down – until, that is, Poghosyan stabbed home in the final seconds to give us the trophy.

It was just as well that we did not go to penalties if our cup campaign was anything to go by. At home to Banants in the quarters, we somehow contrived to lose 2-0 despite dominating the match, and giving our opponents every chance of making progress. 20 minutes into the away leg we were back on level terms, but could not force our way through a third time, leaving us with extra time and then penalties. With one miss apiece after five round, David Hakobyan screwed his shot wide of the left upright with the first kick of sudden death, and Mkrtchyan could do nothing about the next shot he faced. We were out, we were embarrassed, and we needed to do better.

If we had expected a flying start in the league, we were sorely disappointed. Last season it had taken 17 matches to drop points, this time round it took one. Gandsazar held us to a 2-2 draw at Lernagorts in our season opener, and it would not be an anomaly – before we reached a quarter of the way through, both Shirak and Ararat would also take a point from us. We remained unbeaten, but such sloppiness left us two points adrift of Banants at the early checkpoint, albeit with our rivals having played an extra match.

Thankfully, as the games came thick and fast both at home and oversea, we began to hit our groove – running Milan and Barcelona seemed to make lighter work of Mika and Banants – and in the next set of seven there would be just two dropped points, again at the home of Gandsazar, who were setting themselves up as our rivals for the title. We hit halfway three behind with two in hand, and three games later broke for the winter with an infuriating 3-3 draw at Mika that left us a single point clear with 11 games to go. For the first time in a while, we were being made to fight for our title.

Both sides would win their first two games after the resumption, but on matchday 20 we seemed to show our hand. While Gandsazar were beaten away at Banants, we picked ourselves up from a 3-1 halftime deficit at Shirak and hit four unanswered second half goals to move four points clear. The very next time out, Gandsazar conceded a late equaliser at home to lowly Mika, while we cruised past Ararat. With seven to play, we were suddenly six points clear, and looking good.

As the fates would have it, our next fixture would see us welcome Gandsazar to Yerevan, and a win would almost certainly have sealed the league there and then. Annoyingly, two disallowed goals were evidence of our struggles, and we were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw that kept the title race alive for the time being. The media were quick to praise Gandsazar’s ‘fighting spirit’ – on the other hand, my players were given a strong warning about complacency.

For all our failings, we remained undefeated, and in truth there had been very few occasions on which we had even come close to registering our first loss. Three consecutive and convincing wins on the back of the Gandsazar draw put us within striking distance of yet another league title, and we travelled to Abovyan to face doomed Kotayk knowing a win would do the job. We duly delivered – three goals scored, one conceded, and more silverware in the cabinet. It was getting dull for everyone else, but the standard was improving – as Gandsazar were showing – and Armenia was benefiting. More importantly, we were winning.

A goalless draw at Ararat and home win over Mika wrapped up the season 12 points ahead of Gandsazar, the Kapan club only losing four matches all season and still finishing a distant second. Seven draws was more than I would have liked, but ultimately it was a mere statistic – we had wrapped up an unbeaten season, the first in Armenia since 2003, and my players took the plaudits they undeniably deserved. The challenge now would be to improve on what some viewed as perfection. I begged to differ, and our 70 point tally was now a marker to be beaten. What was the point of settling for less?

[EvilDave]

2022/23

Six seasons down, and I was still hungry. Pyunik were domestic giants, invincible even when not at their best, and yet in Europe I still craved more. Last season, we had tasted a modicum with progress from the Champions League to the Europa, only to meet a Juventus side much stronger than we could cope with. Having come face to face with the continent’s best, the next logical step was to beat them. Was it even possible for an Armenian club?

We were going to find out once way or another, and our transfers were a statement of exactly that. We made three, each at a different stage of their career. At the tail-end, with experience in spades and a healthy international reputation came goalscorer Yura Movsisyan, trading Philadelphia Union and MLS for his homeland. At 34 he would not have the legs to play every game, but would nevertheless add valuable depth and prove a mentor to our young forwards.

In the prime of his career was Gor Agbaljan, who swapped the bench of Eredivise side Heracles for a battle with Arman Putulyan for our right wing berth. At 25 and with a £100k, he represented a significant upgrade on our other rotation players. We needed quality in quantity, and Gor gave us that.

As did Mkrtich Andreasyan, for whom we paid £500k and in doing so broke the record for a domestic Armenian transfer in snatching him from Banants. Just 18 and already entering the international fold, we had chased him since his first team debut 18 months previous. We needed talented young defenders, we needed depth and we needed potential, and in Andreasyan we could well have found a starting centre back for the next decade.

All three went straight into the squad for the Champions League qualifiers, which this year began in neighbouring Georgia at the home of Dila Gori, the club from Stalin’s hometown with an iron grip on their national title. They had nothing of the sort on us however, and we killed the tie in the away leg. 6-0 was the final score, it could comfortably have been more, and we needn’t have bothered playing at home. We did, we won 3-2, and narrowly missed out on double figures across the two games. We would have bigger challenges.

The first was in Kazakhstan, a new destination for Pyunik under my management. Aktobe were our hosts, and they put up a much tougher fight than the Georgians. So much so that we could not make it home to Armenia with a lead, their star striker levelling for the second time late on to leave things finely poised heading to Yerevan. On familiar soil we struck early before adding a second with 15 minutes to play, and a late consolation was thankfully all they could manage. Still, Aktobe had impressed, and I was confident they would make a good fist of their Europa League campaign.

We were not worrying about the Europa however, as we travelled to Israel and Maccabi Tel-Aviv for the first leg of the do-or-die Champions League play-off. To say that we were poor would be an understatement – the hosts outplayed us in every conceivable way, and we were fortunate even to get on the scoresheet. They punished our lacklustre display with three goals of their own, and all of a sudden we were huge outsiders to turn things around at home.

We needed to fight for our Champions League lives, and the players were in no doubt of the fact as they stepped onto the field. We started fast, we started well, and we were rewarded early when a Putulyan cross was deftly headed in Movsisyan eight yards out. With the crowd roaring us on we had momentum behind us and needed just one goal, but to push too hard would be to let in the Israelis, and an away goal could have been fatal. Still we pushed, but despite Poghosyan hitting the bar, it remained 1-0 at the interval.

Time ticked by. 50 minutes, 55, 60. With 20 minutes remained we were heading out and I rolled the dice, Adamyan and Hambardzumyan brought off the bench as we threw caution to the wind in a 4-2-4 formation. Maccabi might have scored, but losing by one and by three was the same in my book. We needed something, and eventually we got it, Putulyan again beating his man for pace and this time fizzing in a low ball across the penalty area. Beating his man with a near post run was Adamyan, and with three minutes to spare we got the goal we needed. Down went the shutters, and moments later the final whistle blew. Somehow, we had made it again.

Standing between us and the knockout stages would be CSKA Moscow, Napoli and Benfica – arguably the weakest top seed, but two of the stronger sides from pots two and three. We were still some way off escaping the bottom group ourselves, and until then would need to rely on fortunate draws if we were to have any hope of progress.

Up first was a trip to Southern Italy, and while my players no doubt enjoyed their travels, our on-pitch experience could have been better. We scored twice, but the hosts hit four to hand us an opening day defeat and put us on the back foot from the outset. Our trip to Benfica produced a similar outcome with a 3-0 reverse, but between the two matches we gave ourselves hope, swapping goals with CSKA in an entertaining 2-2 draw that gave us at least a chance if we could do something in Moscow.

Using our home advantage looked like it was going to be the best chance we had of adding to our single point, and so it proved when Benfica came to town. Despite losing Karen Hakobyan to a second booking before the end of the first half, we put in one of our finest European displays to seal a 1-1 draw with the Portuguese giants and claim an unexpected point. When Napoli came to town two weeks later, it looked like being all three – Movsisyan giving us the lead from the penalty spot in the 86^th minute – only for Lorenzo Insigne to end our hopes of even Europa League football with an injury time equaliser. A late winner in Moscow from the half-Russian Andrei Kuzin saw us finish with six points, our best Champions League tally so far, but the closeness of the group proved our undoing. Benfica led the way with 10, and CSKA edged Napoli on head-to-head results with both sides earning eight points. There was no prize for effort for Pyunik.

Still, while the outcome was a step backwards, the performances had been promising. Had Insigne not levelled in the dying seconds in Yerevan, had we been more clinical in the home game against CSKA – looking back, there were genuine opportunities for us to progress. Yes, the group had not contained a genuine contender for the title as some of our previous groups had, but these were still Europe’s elite sides. We were moving forward. It was slow progress, but we were heading in the right direction.

[EvilDave]

Despite our failure to advance in Europe, we were the side to beat at home. Last year we had eventually regained the title after a lengthy battle with Gandsazar, but the crucial point was that we had done so undefeated, achieving an invincible campaign that would go down in history. I was keen to see us keep pushing our boundaries, but I was also aware that we would have a bigger target than ever painted on our collective back, that opponents would have our fixture circled in red on their calendars. We would need to be careful.

We expected Gandsazar to be our main rivals for the title once more, and so it was deeply satisfying to get one over on them in the Super Cup. It took us until deep into extra time to break the second deadlock of the night, but given that it was our shadow side taking part with just a handful of first team players involved, it gave us plenty of hope for the year ahead.

As did the cup, where the draw paired us with last season’s runners-up in the first tie. In the away leg our backups fell to a 3-2 defeat, but only after the first eleven had taken our visitors apart 3-0 on our turf. With our main rivals out of the way, Banants proved little opposition in the last four, a 2-1 win on the road and a Poghosyan hat-trick on our travels easing us into the final with a 5-2 aggregate win. This was proving a little easy.

Our opponents in the final would be Alashkert, arguably the weakest of the clubs we would face, and if the second leg of the semis had been the Hovhannes Poghosyan show, our display in the showpiece was far more rounded team performance. Robert Hakobyan got us underway with a towering header, Putulyan fired in to double the lead, and before the interval our star striker had got himself on the scoresheet to give us a 3-0 lead. In the second half we added a second Hakobyan to the list of scorers, David firing one in from the edge of the area, before Mkrtich Andreasyan nodded in his first ever Pyunik goal with 10 minutes to go to make it 5-0 and a complete rout. Five goals, five scorers, and another trophy in the cabinet. If ever our dominance was questioned, we had answered it emphatically.

And yet, where it had taken us 17 games before dropping a single point, in this campaign it took us just 90 minutes. Alashkert, several months before their humiliation in the cup final, surprised even themselves by fighting back from two goals down in the second half to earn a point and get us off to a worrying start. If that was how the weaker sides responded to the unbeaten champions, we ran the risk of being outdone by the stronger teams in the league.

It was a risk we heeded. At the seven game mark, a quarter of the way through the season and a useful marker as to how we were doing, we sat a point clear of expected challengers Gandsazar having dropped no further points. The highlight of those six straight wins came our sixth match of the year away at Mika, when Yura Movsisyan – until this point eased into first team duties due to his age – announced himself afresh to the Armenian league. 5-1 was the final score, all five goals going to our new striker, and we were again making statements.

Another win made it seven on the bounce before Banants came to town, and with our city rivals not in the best of form, the scene looked set for another comfortable victory for my champions. Instead, the visitors kicked, pulled and scratched their way to a point in a scrappy game, five men from each side finding themselves in the referee’s notebook as the foul count mounted. Not only had we dropped our second points of the season, we had highlighted a possible weakness to the rest of the league. Unless we toughened up, every club in Armenia would be gearing up for a fight against Pyunik. The dangers of this were obvious, and my men were warned of the consequences. Either front up, or get out.

To a man, they fronted up. Having won seven in a row after dropping our first points of the season, we did the same after our second draw, dispatching our opponents with relative ease as we marched to a seven-point lead at the winter break. With Gandsazar struggling to keep us with our blistering pace, it appeared we were in no threat of being outfought on a regular basis. And if we kept the competition firmly on the football pitch, we knew we would come out on top more often than not.

[EvilDave]

However, with no defeats in the league for more than a year, other clubs were beginning to take notice, and for the first time the bidding got serious. These were no longer Croatian clubs throwing a few thousand at us in the hope of unsettling our stars, these were big European outfits hunting their prey. Twente and Osasuna were in for Poghosyan, Panathanaikos wanted Tigran Minasyan, Galatasaray chased Karen Hakobyan, while Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan attracted seven-figure sums from Porto, Schalke and Besiktas. With the exception of the ever-loyal Poghosyan, who penned a new deal, the others all wanted out to varying degrees.

None would leave. Risking a potential dressing room revolt, I firmly rejected the advances of anyone who ventured near my team. While the sums involved were flattering, the club had little need of the money – regular Champions League football in a nation like Armenia swells the coffers far beyond what is needed – and in such a small nation, replacing their talents would be almost impossible. No, we needed those players for the time being, and if things changed in years to come, we would be able to attract even higher premiums. The suitors didn’t like it, nor did the players involved – I had to be firm with many wanted to ‘test themselves in a better division’ – but my decision was final. We would stick together.

Whether the players involved were simply seeking a channel for their anger, or whether they had decided that the best way to force a move would be to increase their value further I don’t know, but the apparent dissent did not manifest itself in poor performances on the field. Our first game back in March was away at Banants, the last side to trip us up in the league, and we destroyed them. Poghosyan hit four in a 5-0 thrashing, the only black mark on the match being a broken foot for Minasyan that would end his season. The following week we welcomed Gandsazar to the capital with a 3-0 win, and with 10 games to go were 10 points clear.

Another win, and we were set for matchday 20 at Mika. What followed was the finest 25 minutes of football I have had the pleasure of watching, the hosts simply incapable of getting near us as we tore through their defence time and time again. At the end of those 25 minutes we led 6-0 and it could have been more, and the only disappointment was that we didn’t hit double figures by the end of the 90. Poghosyan hit four, and recent youth graduate Aram Ohanyan – a defensive midfielder by trade – became our youngest ever league goalscorer, netting a memorable hat-trick a day before his 17^th birthday. 7-2 was the final score, Mika at least improving a little after the break, but the damage was already done.

But we were not done inflicting it. The final game of the third set of fixtures saw us host Ararat, and it did not take long for them to regret making the short journey across Yerevan. If Mika had been blown away, Ararat were decimated – in as close to a literal sense of the word as football allows. The visitors scored our first goal for us after just three minutes, an ominous sign of what was to come. By half time we led 6-1, and with six minutes left in the game we granted the wishes of our greedy fans by hitting double figures. 10-1, all manner of records broken, and an emphatic statement. Poghosyan helped himself to another four goals, but there was only one other Pyunik player on the scoresheet, another homegrown starlet – Vahe Khachatrian – marking just his fourth senior appearance with no fewer than five goals. His star would rise rapidly, and with 17 goals in our last two games, we had put real fear in the hearts of our next opponents.

Game 22 would not be another high-scoring affair, but it would be three points and put us on the brink of yet another championship win. Round 23 sent us to Shirak, and still with just four dropped points all year, we knew that Gandsazar’s failure to beat Banants at home in the early game would be enough to crown us once more. We conceded three, but in keeping with our recent form hit the visitors for six of our own to clinch the title. 21 wins and two draws was emphatic form by anyone’s standards, and all that was left for us to do now was to break our previous records. 70 points had been the standard set in last season’s unbeaten run, and with five games still to play we were just five short of the same tally. We had also smashed in 84 goals over the course of our 23 matches – getting to 100 would be quite the statement, even if it seemed unlikely.

A 3-0 win on home took us to 68 and 87 respectively, before we crushed our nearest challengers Gandsazar 4-1 in their own back yard to push us past our previous points tally and reach 91 goals for the season. Suddenly, hitting 100 did not seem so far-fetched, and the focus of every sports journalist in the country was on whether or not we would reach the milestone. With three games to go, we needed nine more.

Bottom club Erebuni gave us the ideal opportunity to find at least some of those, and a hat-trick from Poghosyan ensured our star striker held up his end of the bargain. Two more from the emerging Khachatrian saw us wind up 5-2 winners, and needing just four more. At home to Mika, we got three, leaving us with one final fixture – away across town at Ararat to grab one more goal. To further spice things up, Ararat were not yet sure of survival – they sat a single point above Erebuni, and on the basis of games won would be relegated if they lost and their rivals got a point.

Fortunately for them, they did not – otherwise Ararat would have been in serious trouble. For a team fighting for their lives, they were simply poor. Poghosyan got yet another hat-trick – taking him to a frankly ridiculous tally of 48 league goals in just 26 matches, and 60 in 38 across all competitions – while our other two goals were scored by strikers at opposite ends of their careers, Movsisyan and Khachatrian book-ending the hat-trick with a header apiece from Agbaljan crosses.

That left us with 80 points – just four points short of the maximum possible tally – and 104 goals, the most anyone had managed since the early 1990s in a very different-looking league, and a marker which would surely prove impossible to beat by anyone other than ourselves. We had now gone two complete seasons and more than 60 matches undefeated, and had won every match we had played from November onwards. There were very few places we could go to improve domestically from here – but that wouldn’t stop us trying.

[EvilDave]

2023/24

With such an incredible season behind us, the vultures were circling again. Poghosyan, Toplakaltsyan, Khachatrian, Minasyan – all attracted bids from clubs as diverse as Porto, Schalke, Panathanaikos and Spartak, but nobody was sold. Again, not everybody was happy with that, but it was the price we needed to pay for success. I was not letting this team break up without a fight.

Coming in were another batch of teenagers, six youngsters arriving for a grand total of £1.2m. It was the most we’d spent yet, and none of them would go straight into the starting eleven, but it was necessary if we were to retain our position atop the Armenian tree. Given some of those we were bidding farewell to – bit-part stalwarts such as Erik Vardanyan, Artur Kartashyan, Armen Manucharyan and the retiring Artur Sarkisov – we needed the numbers to continue our assaults on all fronts.

On the European agenda were the Champions League qualifiers, and the first tie was one of the easiest we could have asked for. Lusitans may retain close ties to Portugal, but the standard of the Andorran league leaves plenty to be desired, and a 3-0 win in the Pyrenean principality was more than enough to ease us through. What was a little unnecessary was the 10 goals we then smashed past them in Yerevan, both Hambardzumyan and Khachatrian grabbing hat-tricks, and securing our biggest aggregate win in some time.

Awaiting us in the third qualifiers were Finns HJK, who had regained their title at home after a couple of barren years. While they had edged through their previous tie, we gave them no hope in this one, a 4-2 win at home followed up with an emphatic 5-1 win in Helsinki, Poghosyan this time the one to claim the match ball with three close-range finishes and send us cruising through into the play-off round.

Meeting us there would be Belarusian regulars BATE Borisov, and a goalless draw on the road – the first competitive game we had failed to win since the penultimate game of last year’s group stage against Napoli back in November – left things hanging in the balance heading into the home leg. What we produced was a bruising encounter – both Putulyan and Andreasyan required replacing after picking up knocks – but crucially one that we won. Two first-half goals put us firmly in the driving seat, and while an old goal from Nadiryan 20 minutes from the end set up a nervous conclusion, we had done enough to make it through. As was becoming a habit of ours, we had made it to the groups.

Our reward was another nightmare draw. Last year we had come off reasonably lightly in drawing a couple of the weaker sides from the upper pots – this time round we would have no such luck. Borussia Munchengladbach were our third seeds, with continental giants Juventus and Manchester City from the top two. Unless we could somehow snatch something against the Germans, it was looking very much like a pointless endeavour lie ahead.

Indeed, the pre-tournament predictions were frustratingly accurate, and while we were not smashed around the park as some may have expected – our biggest defeat coming in a 4-0 reverse at the Etihad in the first round of fixtures – we completed our six without a point to our name. Single goal defeats to all three opponents were eminently respectable, as were the 3-1 and 2-0 losses in the remaining fixtures, but ultimately there are no rewards for keeping things close. The draw had been difficult, but this represented a step backwards, and there was no positive spin to put on things. If we wanted to be taken seriously as a European side, we needed to do better. Much better.

[EvilDave]

In any game of football, 36 shots – providing they are taken with at least the intent of scoring, and not all from 40 yards out – should be enough to score at least one goal. Nevertheless, after 120 minutes of the seasonal Super Cup against Alashkert, we found ourselves locked at 0-0 despite peppering the opposition from every conceivable angle. It was just as well that we won the shootout, as otherwise I dread to think what would have happened to our strikers’ confidence. As it was, we just about escaped with our pride intact.

We made things equally difficult for ourselves in the cup, being reduced to 10 men with 40 minutes of the first leg of the opening tie still remaining. Despite Karen Hakobyan’s misdemeanour we salvaged a 1-1 draw against Gandsazar, but still had plenty to do in the return game. What followed was one of the classic Armenian matches, the nation’s top two sides going at one another with no regard whatsoever for defending. The chaos stopped at 5-4, a late Putulyan goal edging us through at the expense of our rivals, and somehow we had done just enough.

We did the same in the semis against Mika, although this time without the fireworks. The backups returned a blank in the away leg but kept a clean sheet, and it needed the first choice side to do the business in the home leg, cruising through 3-1 to maintain our hopes of retaining the trophy. Banants were our opponents in the final, and they needn’t have bothered – five goals with five different scorers, just as we had done against Alashkert at the same stage the previous year – and we kept the trophy for another season. Our form in the competition was odd to say the least, but we kept winning and that suited me just fine.

To the league then, where we were defending an unbeaten streak stretching back more than two entire seasons. As if we needed further evidence that we intended to keep that streak going, we hit 13 goals in our opening three matches – 4-1 at Gandsazar, and 5-0 and 4-1 at home to Alashkert and Ararat respectively – leaving us flying high atop the standings from a very early stage. Last year we had fired in more than 100 goals, and at this rate were looking good to do the same again.

But we slowed down, our next four matches yielding a mere 10 as we maintained our perfect record at a more leisurely pace. Eight points clear after seven did little for those complaining the league was no longer competitive, but in our eighth fixture we slipped up, drawing 2-2 at Ararat for our first blemish of the season. That we smashed Shirak 5-0 the next week brought the smile back to my face.

By the halfway point we had stumbled again, Gandsazar holding us 1-1 at home, and our lead was cut to seven with a game in hand. However, in match 15 of the season, the unthinkable happened and fans of every club other than Pyunik had cause to celebrate – we lost a match. Ararat were the surprising side to end our 71-match streak, and it came in the most agonising of circumstance, a fumbled cross 10 minutes from time gifting them an equaliser, and then Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan stretching to deflect an own goal past Mkrtchyan in injury time for a 2-1 defeat. The Ararat players celebrated as if they had won the Champions League itself, the newspapers had a field day and questioned my commitment to the job, everyone wanted the inside story of the historic match. After reading my men the riot act, we put six past Banants next time out, and tried to forget about it. It hurt, of that there was no doubt, but we still sat nine points clear of Shirak at the winter break. In the grand scheme of things, it meant nothing. We simply started again.

[EvilDave]

Another chaotic winter saw Europe’s great and good try and strike a deal at Pyunik market, but we weren’t selling. Not Minasyan, not Poghosyan, not even the in-demand Khachatrian. Nobody was going out, and with nobody coming in, it was as simple as turning off my phone. I was getting my used to ignoring the managers of Europe’s top clubs.

Upon the resumption, a 4-1 win at Shirak came at a price – namely, Poghosyan’s groin, a muscle tear seeing him miss five weeks and wreck his chances of another record-breaking season. That left the goalscoring burden to be shared out between Khachatrian and Hambardzumyan, and at first they struggled – a 2-2 draw at Kotayk should have been a 8-2 win – but across the board we had enough. A routine victory over Mika in the following match put us 14 clear of the chasing pack, and just a couple of games away from another title.

What should have been the crowning moment against Alashkert instead delayed our celebrations for a week, the underdogs somehow holding out for a goalless draw despite another 30-shot performance from our forwards. It mattered little though – a few days later, Poghosyan marked his return to fitness by coming off the bench and bagging a 20-minute brace at Ararat to give us a 3-2 win, the victory at the home of the only side to beat us in three seasons wrapping up the championship and moving us 17 points clear with just four games to play. Given the earlier result, there was nowhere else I’d have rather sealed the title – it felt right, and the memory was quickly erased.

From then on, we marched serenely to the end of the season, our supposed rivals dropping points all over the place as we simply blitzed those in our path. For the sentimentalists out there, the finest moment came in the penultimate match of the season – our final home appearance of the year – against Kotayk, a routine 3-0 win wrapped up by none other than Yura Movsisyan, the 36-year-old grabbing the final goal in his only appearance of the season, and final outing before enjoying his retirement. He had only been a bit-part player for us, a wise old head guiding a youthful side, but the fans had warmed to him nonetheless. His substitution five minutes from time earned him a standing ovation, and for a man of his calibre, it was richly deserved.

A week later we travelled to Mika and in typically prolific fashion beat them 4-2 to finish up a full 24 points ahead of Shirak, with Ararat the surprising side in third place and Gandsazar only just holding on to a place in Europe. It had been another dominant season – only denied a third unbeaten run in a row by that irritating defeat to Ararat – and there were signs that we were improving.

Yes, we had been dumped out of the Champions League in fairly unceremonious fashion, but on the pitch things were looking up. In previous years, we had relied heavily on Poghosyan’s remarkable rate of goalscoring – this year, he recorded a relatively modest 22 league goals in 24 appearances for an overall strike rate of 34 in 39. However, picking up the slack was Vahe Khachatrian, our youth graduate hitting 19 of his own in domestic competition and a further 17 across the cup and Europe. His form meant interest from a number of sources, but a greater attacking threat was not to be sniffed at.

Next year would my ninth season at Pyunik, and there was still work to be done. The number of players outside our squad who could improve us was slowly falling, and the number of those already at the club in need of regular playing time was on the rise. To keep everyone happy, we would need to master the art of rotation, utilise the loan system, and make as much progress as possible in Europe to maximise the number of games available, all without sacrificing performance. It would be a difficult ask, but a challenge we would need to rise to. The alternative was a reversion to minnow status, and that did not bear thinking about.

[EvilDave]

2024/25

Was it a revolution? No, that was too bold a word. It was a part of our evolution though. Along with Movsisyan’s retirement, we bade farewell to others who had played a significant role in the club’s development. Arthur Voskanyan had never been a first-choice player thanks to the obvious qualities of Armen Putulyan, but was enough of a character in the dressing room to have been captain for two years. However, he was no longer good enough to earn a new contract, and so he left. Joining him out the door was Sergis Adamyan, for a few years a trusted partner for Poghosyan now relegated to fifth choice at best.

The other man to leave, with much less fanfare, was Aram Boiajyan, the first youngster to really kick up a fuss about not getting enough minutes. He had cost us a reasonable amount when we had first brought him in, but his failure to adapt his style and integrate into the group meant that when Gandsazar offered us £230k to end his time with us, there was no hesitation in accepting a slight profit.

Those staying were heavily pursued. Tigran Minasyan had interest shown in him by no fewer than 60 clubs at various points, but none could prise him out of from my selfish hands. The same was true to a lesser degree for Karen and Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan, Poghosyan, youth goalkeeper Karen Aslanyan – who was about to take over from Mkrtchyan as our starter – Karen Hakobyan, and young first team defender Armen Adamyan. They were ours, and that was final.

Lastly, the incomings. Eight players in all, all teenagers, all with a long way to go before they could step into the first team at Pyunik. However, after scouring both the nation and the diaspora for potential talent, they were the best my homeland had to offer, and so they needed to join us. These were not transfers for this season or even the next, but the £1m we spent now would be a drop in the ocean compared to the prizes they could win us on the pitch in future years.

We wanted those prizes to be in Europe, and again we began our Champions League campaign in Georgia and the home of Dila Gori. Last time we had visited, we had smashed six goals past them in the away leg before wrapping things up at home. On this occasion we stopped at five, rendering the home leg unnecessary and the goalless draw inconsequential. This first round of qualification was little more than a warm-up for the main event.

The next stage again brought familiar opposition, allowing us to reignite the geopolitical spark between ourselves and Azerbaijan with a tie against Qarabag, another side we had vanquished in the past. Whereas last time we had needed away goals, this time we simply destroyed our opponents, four goals for Poghosyan the highlight of a 7-0 thrashing in Baku before three at home gave us a 10-0 aggregate victory.

The play-off gave us Celtic, the Scottish side by far the most difficult team in the draw and a real obstacle to our sixth successive group stage appearance. In Glasgow their famous support earned them an injury time penalty which in any other setting would never have been given, leaving us 2-1 down after the first leg but with a valuable away goal. They wiped it out half an hour into the return, but by that point we had found two goals of our own, leaving the final hour as a one-off shootout. With the crowd behind us and the lead on the night, we were confident.

But we were misguided. A third goal did indeed arrive, Khachatrian finishing from a Putulyan cross, but so too did a Celtic second with just 15 minutes to play. Stunned into action, we piled forward, but the Scots held firm to deny us. Yerevan fell into a mournful silence at the final whistle, my players unsure how to react to their failure. For the first time in more than half a decade, there would be no Pyunik, no Armenian representation into the Champions League. It was a hammer blow. Did this mean we were minnows once again?

[EvilDave]

To emphasise the difference between the worlds of the Champions and Europa Leagues, we only had to look at our group. While Munchengladbach had beaten us in the premier competition before, here they were our top seeds. We ourselves found ourselves in the second pot, joined from the third and fourth by Legia from Poland and French side Caen, who had not been in Europe at all during the past decade.

The one consolation was that as second seeds, we were favourites to progress, and we made a strong start with a 4-1 win in Warsaw to hit the ground running. Matchday two gave us a famous win, teenager Ashot Ghazaryan marking his first European appearance with a 93^rd minute winner against the Germans in Yerevan, before a surprisingly comfortable trip to France saw us pick us a 2-0 victory and maximum points from our opening three games.

Two weeks later, Caen came to Armenia and we matched the scoreline, confirming our progress with two matches to spare. The first of those was at home to Legia, and Poghosyan light up the night with four goals in a 5-1 hammering which confirmed first place in the group and, at least in theory, a favourable draw for the knockout round. All that was left was a trip to Germany, and while we somehow turned a 3-1 lead into a 4-4 draw, the entertainment on offer was well worth our travelling.

Last time we had reached this stage of the Europa League, we had been comprehensively beaten by Juventus. On this occasion, we were paired with Galatasaray, a strong opponent but not nearly of the same calibre as the Italians. Not only that, but given the understandable hostility felt by we Armenians towards the Turks, it promised to be an unforgettable evening in Istanbul. The first leg lived up to expectations – we stunned the hosts by racing into a 3-0 lead after 49 minutes, only to be a goal behind after 75. Not ones to be easily beaten, Poghosyan struck in the 88^th to leave us finely poised at 4-4, and record a second successive eight-goal draw in Europe. We were nothing if not entertaining.

The home leg was nowhere near as competitive, and that suited us fine. Two each for Poghosyan and Khachatrian eased us to a 4-0 home win which was headline news all across Armenia, earning us an 8-4 aggregate triumph and a clash with Braga in the last 16. The Portuguese club was one we had beaten in the past, and so were confident heading into the home leg.

What followed was none of the end-to-end stuff we had seen in Istanbul, but instead a far more cagey affair, both sides recognising the good fortune of their draw and not wanting to throw it away. The game was settled by a Minasyan free-kick midway through the second half, and we had both a lead and a clean sheet to take to Portugal with us. Another tense game played out and looked to be settled by an opportunistic strike seven minutes from the end from the Portuguese lone striker, an outcome which would have seen extra time and potentially penalties. However, they had reckoned without the abilities of Vahe Khachatrian, who beat his man to the ball in the 92^nd minute, heading beyond the goalkeeper and sending us into the quarter finals. This was uncharted territory, and we were keen to keep exploring.

We were now at the business end of the tournament, and were joined there by Valencia, six-time Spanish champions and two-time Champions League finalists. We were firm underdogs here, and when the visitors raced into a 2-0 lead after just 18 minutes of our home leg, it looked like the dream was over. We had battled admirably, dispelled our minnow status, but ultimately had not been able to compete against the cream of the European crop.

Except it wasn’t over, and there was still plenty of time remaining. By the time the referee blew for full time, we had returned Valencia’s fire with four unanswered goals, giving us a shock lead to take with us to the Mediterranean coast. The only downside was a big one – Poghosyan breaking his ankle and being ruled out for the remainder of the season. Without him, we were relying on Khachatrian and Ghazaryan for the away leg, and with the hosts forced to attack, they did their injured team-mate proud. A counter-attacking masterclass saw us come out 3-2 winners on the night and 7-4 conquerors on aggregate, convincing victors as we moved into the last four. However, there would be another cost, as big as Poghosyan – Putulyan, assist king on the right side of midfield, had to be withdrawn after an hour, and the diagnosis was horrendous. Cruciate ligament damage, and up to 11 months on the sidelines.

Even with two of our most important players, finding a way past Chelsea was always likely to prove difficult. Without them, the odds were stacked against us, and with Paulo Dybala playing like a man possessed in Yerevan, we were left with an impossible task. The Argentine star hit a hat-trick to leave us three goals down, before a late rally brought it back to 3-2 and gave us a glimmer of hope. A fourth goal for the English side left us with a huge amount of work to do in London, and a single Dybala strike was enough to seal the away leg and a 5-2 overall victory. Chelsea would go on to defeat Manchester United in the final – a match as worthy of the Champions League as the Europa.

Reflecting on our achievements, it was difficult to overstate how far we had come in this year. What began as a failure against Celtic ended in a spectacular run to the Europe semis, victories over Munchengladbach, Galatasaray, Braga and Valencia, and proof that, even if we came off second best, we had the ability to give the likes of Chelsea a game over two legs despite missing two star men. Minnows do not reach the semi-finals of European competition – we had done so in style, and had won plenty of admirers in the process.

Could we do it again? Could we carry our momentum forward into the Champions League? I honestly had no idea. On the one hand, we had beaten teams of that calibre, and comfortably at that. On the other hand, we were likely to remain a low seed, and were therefore at the mercies of the draw. With a good group, we could go far, but only with a good group. What we really needed was to remove the element of chance, and we could only do that by getting a lot better. That would have to be the aim.

[EvilDave]

Domestically, we had lost only one league fixture in three years on our way to complete dominance, and were by now well-accustomed to lifting cup silverware as well. The same was true of the 2024 version of the Super Cup, with Banants providing the opposition in what is increasingly a chance for some of our more promising youngsters to shine.

And shine they did – Poghosyan representing the old guard with a brace to mark his first competitive game since the ankle break, and no fewer than five others joining him on the scoresheet in a 7-0 romp. It was a result which resonated around the country – had we turned Armenia into a one-club country? Had we killed off competition? Did it matter? They were questions for others to grapple with. We just needed to keep winning.

In the cup, we struggled to do that. We were given a plum in the opening round, matched with newly-promoted Shenghavit who had never before reached the top flight. Rock bottom of the league by the time we travelled for the away league with only a single point to their name, we somehow contrived to throw away two leads on the way to a poor 2-2 draw with the backups. Of course we still had the home game to come, and with a couple more of the regulars back in the side, Vahe Khachatrian took them for a ride, scoring four goals unanswered to send us through to the semis.

There we would meet Mika, who were enjoying an excellent season by the time we took them on. As against Shenghavit, we took a lead in the first leg – this time at home – and once again managed to concede a late goal to leave us deadlocked heading into the second. As against Shenghavit, we sent on our heavy hitters for the return leg, and cruised to a comfortable victory, this time only 2-0, to book a place in the final.

However, opponents on the day Banants were out for revenge after their humiliation in our earlier encounter, and for the first time in years they were able to overcome us on the day. We fell behind early, levelled through young left winger Tigran Hakobyan, but struggled to keep up the pace in the second period to the extent that we slipped to a 3-1 defeat. With our European run only just over and fatigue firmly set in the legs of many, it was an understandable defeat, but a galling one nevertheless. Next year, we would have it back, or else.

Banants’ cup win capped off a successful season for our city rivals, and while they were never close enough to us to pose a considerable threat to the title, they would be a thorn in our side throughout the campaign. Shenghavit posed us few problems in the opening game, a 4-0 away win setting a solid foundation for us to build on. However, two games later we travelled to Banants and were held to a 2-2 draw, the only points we would drop in the opening round of fixtures. That placed us five points clear of Shirak, and already set for success.

While there was never any chance we would slip down the table, we would not have everything entirely our own way. Matchday 10 saw us frustrated in Kapan by Gandsazar with a 1-1 draw, and while we then proceeded to hammer Shirak by five unanswered goals, it triggered something of a barren spell for us. Ararat held us when we travelled across town in our next encounter, before a parked bus containing the Mika team had the nerve to hold us goalless – the first time in many a year we had gone two scoreless games in a row – on our own soil.

Mercifully, Shenghavit were our next fixture, and while a mere two goals was fewer than we would have liked, the win took us to the halfway mark with 34 of a possible 42 points, nine points clear of both Banants and Mika with a game in hand. We would place twice more before winter, putting five past Shenghavit in our catch-up game before going goalless again against Alashkert, in the process extending our lead to double figures.

The winter gave us the opportunity to engage with some of Europe’s leading lights once again as my phone was bombarded with calls and attempts to sign almost every member of our first team. As per usual, we rebuffed them all – we had a European campaign to be getting on with, and we needed every man we had to be firing on all cylinders for us, rather than our opponents.

Despite juggling commitments at home and abroad after the break, we were as dominant as ever. We dropped eight further points over the remaining 12 fixtures – goalless at Mika before our clash with Galatasaray, 2-2 against Shirak and 1-1 at Ararat either side of the domestic cup final, and a final day draw at home to Mika which saw Gor Agbaljan’s last-gasp leveller preserve our third undefeated league campaign in four seasons. It was a great moment to celebrate, although in truth we should never have let them lead us.

Small blips aside, we were never really troubled, and a 3-0 win at Alashkert with five games remaining took us past a winning post with plenty of room to spare. Banants’ slip on the same day sent us a huge 19 points clear of them and that stage, and despite three of our draws coming after that point, we would finish 24 points clear by the end of the season. Banants would hold second place, but only by virtue of winning one more match than both Shirak and Mika, who shared their 42-point total. At the other end, Shenghavit managed to win points in just five matches, relegated with just 11 to their name.

Looking back, nine draws was frustrating – our European efforts clearly showed us to be streets ahead of domestic competition, and had yet we had shown a tendency to ease off or become complacent at crucial moments. But, while our 66 points was the lowest tally of all our unbeaten years, it was the first to include a genuine run on the continent, something which clearly took its toll as the year went on – both in terms of injuries to the likes of Poghosyan and Putulyan, but also with general fatigue. It is easy to make excuses, but when we are involved in the latter stages of European competition, I am less inclined to fuss over the odd draw in the league.

That said, I was not about to settle for what we already had, and we needed to kick on if we were to establish ourselves as regular player in those big European games, rather than the shock troops of this season. We wanted to be in a position to complete a perfect season in the league, win the cups, and compete in the Champions League. It was ambitious, but I would not be doing my job justice if I settled for anything else.

[EvilDave]

This was it. Year 10 – or the 2025/26 season, as it was known to the rest of the world – would see its conclusion mark a full decade for me in charge of Pyunik, and it was worth taking a moment to take stock of what we had achieved and how far we had come in that time. Few managers get the opportunity to shape a club as fully as I have been able to do, and so there is a constant pressure to justify my decisions.

On the field, the results speak for themselves. Nine seasons, nine league titles, three of them unbeaten and only one league defeat in the last four years. It is an unparalleled record in Armenia and indeed the rest of the European game – at home, we are a cut above, and this despite being expected to finish bottom back in my debut season. Given that we have only used Armenian players, and that we have also picked up five of the last six domestic cups and more Super Cups than we have lost, our dominance is evident.

Overseas, progress has been the name of the game. In my first season, we exceeded expectations to fall just one round away from the Europa League groups. The following two, we did the same in reaching the first knockout round of the same competition. From then on, it was all about the Champions League, for five years reaching the elite 32 of Europe’s premier competition in order to struggle against the best on the continent. When we did fail to make it last season, we responded with a run all the way to the semis of the Europa League, knocking out teams far bigger than Pyunik. We were becoming a force to be reckoned with.

We were also dragging the nation with us. Our performances alone meant that from the 2026/27 season, Armenia would have two qualifying spots for the Champions League, rather than the one we had been accustomed to. With three further sides entering the Europa League qualifiers, more than half the league would be eligible for a shot at Europe. It would be tough to maintain our new position, but it was perhaps the best evidence of our progress so far.

What’s more, we were now the dominant supplier of the Armenian national team. In the last named squad, 14 of the 23 players selected were on our books, with four others having left us for pastures new. We were also responsible for 18 of the 23 in the under-21s, and 13 of the under-19s. Given that many of these players were yet to take to the field for Pyunik in a competitive fixture, it was clear that our policy of hoovering up as much young talent as possible was paying dividends.

Further evidence of this lie in the clubs that were becoming increasingly interested in my players. Initially, the only attempts to sign my men had been from our domestic rivals, and for sums barely reaching five figures. Now, with the reputation of the league on the rise and our own profile growing by the year, it was only a matter of time before we received our first eight-figure offer from one of Europe’s elite. Already we had Champions League sides chasing the majority of my first team – they would continue to be frustrated.

Elsewhere at the club, there was little room for improvement. With the Champions League providing us with more than £10m simply for reaching the group stages plus more for positive results and TV rights, and our annual wage bill still less than £2m – our highest-paid players received just £3,000 each week – the club was wealthy beyond its wildest dreams, the most recent set of accounts estimating a balance of around £90m – another reason we could afford to hold on to our best players.

Those funds meant that we had been able to pump money into our training facilities for the youth team – winners of the national under-19 competition for the past seven years – second team, which had lifted the second-tier title in every year of my tenure bar one – and the all-conquering senior side. We boasted the finest coaches in the land, a scouting outfit scouring every corner of Armenia for talent, the best medical professionals in the country, and a youth recruitment network which touched every club in the nation. For anyone to surpass us domestically, it was going to take nothing short of a miracle.

Yet in the eyes of many, that is exactly what we ourselves were – a miracle, an unexplained freak of nature, a phenomenon that should not have happened and could not be rationally explained. To the ignorant – largely those from outside our homeland – the painstaking preparation, the careful investment, the setting of key targets remained unseen, our secrets ignored in favour of a fairy story.

That was fine for now, as if too many understood what we were doing, they would surely begin to ape us. However, I was under no illusions – the moment we became a consistent contender at the business end of the European season, we would be overrun with requests to reveal all. We would reject them, of course – I was already well accustomed to saying no to the great and good of the footballing world – but we needed to make the most of our freedom until that moment. Our Europa League run had almost shattered our peace, and with time running out, we needed to take advantage.

[neilhoskins77]

Loving this ED. How has your dominance in domestic football and your increased profile in Europe impacted the National Team? 

[EvilDave]

Thanks Neil! Sadly our efforts haven't made much of a difference so far - barring a couple of Nations League Division D wins (both in non-Euro qualifying years) - they're still firmly at the wrong end of the European game. Hopefully that'll change in due course, but I think our tactics have us punching above our weight - something the AI doesn't match at international level. 
--

So, who were the men who would like Pyunik into my second decade, who would aim to build on our historic Europa League run, take advantage of our rising star on the continent and hammer home our domination in domestic competition? We had a large playing staff across the first team, second side and under-19s, but the men likely to feature most often for the senior squad were as follows:

Karen Aslanyan, who had graduated from the youth system back in 2022, was now the firm number one choice between the posts, and his jersey number showed as much. Still young enough not to need registering for European games, he was also the preferred option for the national team and was a mature head on young shoulders. Karen Mkrtchyan, the club captain and star of our first youth intake, had been the key man in goal for a number of years, and while he had been surpassed by the youngster, was still a very capable backup.

At right back, we operated a two-man rotation between two club stalwarts – Artur Nadiryan and Gor Afrikyan. The former had already been at Pyunik when I arrived, his ability to play in the centre of defence and holding midfield keeping him around, and over the years he had evolved into a solid defensive full back. Afrikyan came through the first intake with Mkrtchyan, and provided a less consistent but more attacking option on the side of defence. Both men would get plenty of minutes, with youngster Grigor Hakopyan waiting in the wings for an opportunity.

The left was similarly shared, although with a firm first choice option. Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan was one of our most wanted men by clubs around Europe, and had nailed down the starting spot for big matches immediately after his arrival from Banants as a 21-year-old. The best left back in Armenia by a long shot, he was a shoe-in for Europe and any big matches in the league. Rotating in was Aram Mkrtchyan, no relation to our goalkeeper, who was next in line and would see time in the league whenever his positional rival was suspended, injured, or simply needed a break.

Central defence was a more competitive position, with three men fighting for two starting spots and several adequate reserve options. Robert Hakobyan was one of the former, another long-term servant of the club who predated my reign, and who had evolved into a commanding centre back over the years. Mher Andreasyan was our most expensive signing at the time of his arrival, and had made himself in a fixture in the defence with his imposing physical presence, while 19-year-old youth graduate Armen Adamyan offered a more technical and pacey option. Behind those three were several players – Arman Malkhasyan and Mikayel Aslanyan perhaps the standouts – all of whom could do a job domestically if required, but would not be trusted with Europe and were unlikely to break into the first team more regularly.

We operated with a central midfield two, both of whom had the job to break up play and distribute to the attacking quartet. Here too we were blessed with talent, a group of highly-energetic and technically-gifted players who were absolutely crucial in giving us an advantage over the rest of the sides at home, and a fighting chance on the continent. Tigran Minasyan, Karen Hakobyan and Karen Toplakaltsyan were probably among the top five or six players at the club, while Aram Ohanyan, three years out of our academy, also saw a fair share of minutes thanks to suspension, injury and fatigue. We had youngsters coming through in the position also, and we looked set for years to come.

On the right of midfield, depth was again strong. Although he was out with a long-term injury, Armen Putulyan remained absolutely key to our success, racking up assist after assist with his pace and crossing ability, as well as adding goals to his game. Behind him was Gor Agaljan, brought home from Holland a few years, a veteran of the national team and a more technical, less direct alternative to Putulyan. Were he to go down, 2020 intake star Tigran Kirakosyan and 2024’s top graduate Tigran Andreasyan were well-positioned to step in, and were trusted to the extent that both had already sampled European football.

Our left side was unfortunately a little weaker, with two long-term servants sharing both a surname and playing time. David Hakobyan was now 32 years old but remained first choice on the left flank, his trickery and lack of reliance on sheer pace serving him well as he entered the twilight years of his career. Behind him, namesake Tigran was a little more one-dimensional, but he was a very effective direct winger and was more than capable of cutting it at home and abroad. We would need to bolster the numbers in this area soon, particularly if the elder Hakobyan happened to pick up a serious injury.

That left our front two, a partnership in which we played with a more creative type and an out-and-out finisher – positions for which we had two men each. The star of the show was undoubtedly our talisman, Hovhannes Poghosyan. A baby-faced teenager when I arrived at the club, he was now Pyunik all-time leading appearance maker and goalscorer, until recently regularly hitting more than a goal a game in the league and terrorising defences across Europe with his instinctive finishing. If he was fit, he would start in the poacher’s position, although more recently young Ashot Ghazaryan had developed into a fine young player able to tear apart Armenian back lines and cause continental opposition a problem or two as well.

Prime candidate for the creative role was Vahe Khachatrian, a star of the class of ’22 and now a fully-fledged Armenian international. In recent years he had even outscored Poghosyan in the league despite their different roles within the side, and at a young age was developing into quite the complete forward – he was enough that, if fit and available, would start. His backup was a converted midfield player, Narek Hambardzumyan, whose game needed goals adding to it if he were ever to edge past Khachtrian into the regular eleven, but whose eye for a pass and ability to execute it made him a threat to all but the very best sides we would face.

With several other promising youngsters both waiting in the reserves and heading out on loan around the country, we seemed set to dominate for years, particularly given the financial strength that we had earned through Champions League revenue. We would continue to scout out the best talent our nation had to offer – we would be foolish to do otherwise – but in our first team squad we had a side that was, man for man, stronger than anything anyone at home could pit against us. It was an excellent foundation to build from.

[EvilDave]

2025/26

With just a handful of teenagers brought in after their selection for the Pyunik project and nobody of significance leaving the club – a handful of other teenagers heading across Armenia for first team football on loan the predominant pattern emerging – we were straight on with Champions League qualifying. We would still be missing Putulyan to injury, but otherwise we had a full-strength team with which to try and improve on our feats from last year.

From the heights of the Europa semis, we would begin in the murky depths of the second round of Champions League qualifying, and against a side from a country we were yet to visit – Lithuania. Suduva were the national champions, hailing from the little-known city of Marijampole, and were not expected to give us too many problems as we sought to make it back to the group stages.

And yet they did. Not to the extent that they particularly threatened our goal in Yerevan, but by limiting us to a single score ourselves, we found ourselves in the somewhat unusual position and having to play a full-strength side for the away leg just the make sure. If these genuine minnows from Lithuania were to dump us out, there was not even the Europa League to fall back into – we would be done, our season really over before it had even started. With all that pressure on our shoulders, perhaps it was inevitable that we would struggle, but we squeezed through, a solitary Khachatrian goal giving us an unconvincing 2-0 win and showing just how far we still needed to go to be contenders.

Familiar foes waiting in the next round, and Steaua Bucharest would no doubt have been licking their lips after watching our poor show against Suduva. With that in mind, they provided us with something that was thankfully becoming rare for my Pyunik side – a qualifying defeat – but the 2-1 home loss was nothing more than a minor irritation, coming as it did a week after we had travelled to Romania and blitzed them 6-1. The team that were beaten in Yerevan was a mere shadow of our regular starting line-up, and it felt like we were hitting our stride at the right time once again.

Standing between us and the group stage were APOEL Nicosia, the dominant side in Cyprus and a club more than capable of giving us a good game. Still, we had beaten far stronger teams last season in our Europa run, and had to back ourselves to beat them. There was a gulf in class between the two sides on the field, and it showed for the home leg as we pinned them further and further back into their own half for the first 85 minutes of the game. Crucially though, we were unable to break through, leaving us a potentially nervous five minutes to negotiate.

But negotiate them we did, and in some style. As the clock ticked into the 86^th minute, Hovhannes Poghosyan drove in from the edge of the box to break both tension and deadlock alike, and his goal released the handbrake that APOEL had forced us to play with. Before injury time could come and go we had a second, David Hakobyan curling one into the top corner to double the lead, and we had two goals and a clean sheet to take with us to Cyprus. We couldn’t keep one there, but neither could our hosts, and the 1-1 final score was enough to take us back to the group stages once again. As far as I was concerned, this was where we belonged.

Group B was our stage for the year, and again the draw was less than kind. Bayern Munich were not the all-conquering side of Jupp Heynkes and Pep Guardiola, but were still regular fixtures in the latter stages of the competition. Roma had been surprise finalists two years ago and were steadily improving, while third seeds Monaco possessed a wealth of young attacking talent that was the envy of much of Europe. We were the odd side out, although on this occasion we were at least afforded some respect by the international media after last year’s escapades.

Things began as expected, Bayern coming to Yerevan and leaving with a win – but it was only 2-1, and so we had hope. The Cote d’Azur was our next port of call, and things got very interesting indeed. Three times we took the lead – twice through Khachatrian and once through Poghosyan, who picked up a knock which would keep him out of action for a month – but each time the hosts came back strong. A share of the points and a 3-3 draw in a European away game was something we would take every time, and there would be even better news from our third game of the group, Mkrtich Andreasyan heading in an unlikely winner 10 minutes from time in the Olimpico to stun Roma and put us second in the group at the halfway stage.

In the return game against Roma there was further drama, as we fell 2-0 down after half an hour only to claw our way back into the fight, Khachatrian stabbing home a loose ball in injury time to claim a valuable point. We then went to Germany and returned with wounded pride and a 5-0 tanking, leaving everything riding on a single game with Monaco. If we avoided defeat we were likely to go through, and we did even more, putting in one of the finest performances of my reign as a Khachatrian triple saw off the French giants 3-0, and booked us a place in the last 16 for the first time ever. Once again, we were making history.

As runners-up in our group, Spurs were one of the weaker teams we could have drawn, but we would still be up against it, particularly having to travel to New White Hart Lane for the second leg. Many were expecting the Londoners to run riot even in Yerevan, but we were given a glimmer of hope five minutes before half time. Despite having scored the goal which gave his side the advantage, captain Harry Kane scythed down left back Aram Mkrtchyan and was shown a straight red card for his troubles. With the extra man and home advantage we would likely never get a better opportunity to pull ourselves back into the tie, and with a quarter of an hour to go we took it Poghosyan smashing in a rebound to leave things finely poised heading to England.

Things were a little less balanced when Julian Brandt headed the hosts into the outright lead after just 90 seconds, but from then on we held our own. When Putulyan was forced off with a knee injury – in his first competitive game since returning, no less – Andreasyan picked up the slack on the right with his pace. When Tigran Minasyan was taken out of the game with a cynical challenge in the second half, Aram Ohanyan stepped in perfectly. With 20 minutes to go, we looked to have levelled only to see Khachatrian’s header bounce back out off the post, and in the end we did everything but score.

A 2-1 aggregate defeat to a club of Spurs’ calibre was no shame at all, but we still left feeling like we could have done more. Yes, we had needed Kane’s red card to give us a chance, but we had one nonetheless, and on another day could have made the quarters. For a side of our stature, that was huge – and it gave us hope that next year we could go even further.

[EvilDave]

On the home front, nothing less than complete success would be tolerated. With three unbeaten seasons in the last four and no genuine challenger emerging from the pack – Shirak, Banants and Gandsazar had all taken it in turns to finish second, but always a distant second – it was unthinkable that anyone else could claim the title. We had won the previous nine, and hitting 10 in a row would be a real mark of our domination.

That quest would begin in the Super Cup, with Banants the side to provide the opposition on this occasion. A rival Yerevan side, they were understandably frustrated at seeing a city rival reach such unprecedented heights, but lacked both the financial power to stop us poaching their best players, and the club vision to do anything differently. To their credit, they managed an early goal against the run of play, but one was never going to be enough, and second-half strikes from Ashot Ghazaryan and Karen Hakobyan saw us come back to lift the trophy. Were everything to go to plan, it would be the first of three.

The second was the domestic cup competition, which I had been guilty of undervaluing in the past and would do so again. With Europe our priority, I was not about to pass up the opportunity to give fringe players time in the cup, even if it did mean the odd embarrassing home draw with Erebuni. I knew that we had enough in the tank to win over two legs, and so it proved – despite a 17^th-minute red card for Karen Hakobyan, two quick goals left us comfortably clear of our opponents and into the last four.

Alashkert were our opponents at that stage, and a similar pattern emerged there. A rotated side struggled to a goalless draw at home, only for a variation on the same side to run out 3-1 wins at Nairi. The hopes of a nation lie in Shirak upsetting us in the final, but they were to be disappointed once again, a brace from Khachatrian and one apiece from Poghosyan and David Hakobyan earning us a very comfortable 4-0 win and yet more silverware for the cabinet. We would need a new one before too long – I only hoped it would include European as well as domestic successes.

On to the league, and in my increasingly flippant thinking about the state of the Armenian competition, I had two questions – would we go unbeaten again, and which opponents would force us to drop our first points of the season? The answer to the first will be revealed in due course, but I must admit that the name of Erebuni did not at any point spring to mind for the second.

And yet that is exactly how things panned out, thumping wins over Gandsazar, Ararat and Mika – 3-0, 4-0 and 5-1 respectively – got us off to an absolute flyer, and had me tinkering with my squad to eek out as much playing time as possible for those on the fringes. That led to a much-changed line-up at Erebuni on matchday four, and an irritating 1-1 draw which blew our hopes of a perfect season much earlier than I had hoped.

Even so, we bounced back quickly, hitting five in our next two games away at Alashkert and Banants, before a fourth away game in a row yielded a 3-1 victory at Gandsazar in the final match of the opening round. Rescheduling caused by our European commitments meant that Shirak were the only side we were yet to face, and the Gyumri outfit had also started the season like a train, matching us for points at the first checkpoint and trailing us only on goal difference. Indeed, we were the only two clubs in positive figures.

The Erebuni result aside, the only black mark one our opening set came in the form of another nasty injury. This time Banants were the culprits, but we could not blame the opposition entirely. Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan had gone into a challenge off-balance, and did not get up again, our star left back needing a stretcher to help him off the pitch. Six months out was the result, and ahead of crucial European games we were down one of our star men.

In matchday nine, we were also down two more points, and remarkably it was Erebuni who burned us for the second time in the season. This time it was at home, but again I have no one to blame but myself, arrogance in the team selection process giving the underdogs a faint hope which they then capitalised on. Our anger was firmly taken out on nearest rivals Shirak as we beat them 4-1 in Gyumri next time out, followed by wins over Gandsazar, Banants and Ararat to cement our position on top.

The 14^th game, the halfway point, would be against Gandsazar again, and was infuriating. Not for their first two equalisers, which were well-worked and deserved, but the identity of their third goalscorer. Sergis Adamyan, for years part of our early success, popped up in the 89^th minute to draw them level for a third time, and saw us lose out on points five and six of the season. We would not miss those points – we sat five points clear of Shirak with a game in hand – but to see an old friend come back as a foe was not one of my favourite moments.

[EvilDave]

Before we could make it to the winter break and spend our usual three months rejecting transfer bids for every one of our first team players, we had three more league matches to go. They would come thick and fast, interrupted by our crucial Champions League game with Monaco, but we were up to task. We started slowly, edging past Shirak 1-0 before welcoming our European rivals to Yerevan, and then beat Mika 3-1 for our game in hand to take our lead to 11 points.

There was still one game to go, and it was quite the show. Ararat travelled across town as a side in good form, sitting third at the start of the day. As the only side to beat us in the last four season, they would at least have had a vague idea of being able to win – we quickly snuffed that out. After 20 minutes we led 4-0 and Poghosyan had a hat-trick, and by half-time he had grabbed a fourth as we stretched the lead to 6-1. The second period provided no respite, and just as in the 2022/23 season – when we ran out 10-1 winners against the same opposition – we would push for, and reach, double figures. This time Ararat managed two of their own, but Tigran Andreasyan’s strike three minutes from time got us to 10 for the day, and leave our opponents thoroughly humiliated. It was fine way to end the year, and a real statement to our rivals. Our priorities may now lie on the continent, but we still far, far better than anything Armenia could throw at us.

When the league resumed in March, we had four games left of the third set of fixtures, and at this point it was surely a case of when, rather than if, we would lift the title for a 10^th time in a row. Our third league meeting of the season with Erebuni did not, fortunately for my players, see us drop points to the league’s bottom club again, as we strolled through a 3-0 victory with ease. Alashkert held us to a single goal next time out before Banants were left nursing a 5-0 hammering – a result which left us 14 points clear of second-place Shirak and on the brink of further glory.

Matchday 22 was the Hovhannes Poghosyan show, our talismanic striker rattling in a hat-trick in a 4-2 win at Gandsazar that took us to within touching distance of the finish line. Ararat were our next opponents, and while another 10-goal show would have been the ideal way to wrap up the 10^th title, we would have to settle for a rather uncomfortable 3-2 win, the visitors twice striking back before we put them to back. Of course, it was Poghosyan’s second hat-trick in two games that secured us the title, Shirak dropping 18 points off our relentless pace with five matches still to play.

All that was left to resolve now was the question of the unbeaten run, and we answered it emphatically. Not only were we not defeated, we also conceded a mere two goals in our five remaining fixtures, scoring 18 goals in the process. Mika and Erebuni were beaten 3-0 and 3-1 respectively, before we showed the gulf in class between ourselves and the rest of the league with a 4-0 win at Shirak. Alashkert and Banants shared our remaining eight goals equally, the latter the fortunate side that managed to at least breach our defence in consolation.

We wound up 23 points ahead of Shirak, who would make history as the first Armenian runners-up to have the chance to qualify for the Champions League. Behind them, Ararat recovered well from their 10-2 drubbing to finish in the bronze medal position, with Alashkert and Gandsazar following them into the Europa League. At the other end of the table, Erebuni’s two draws with us did them little good, their 16 other points not enough to prevent a drop into the second tier.

And so we concluded my 10^th year in charge with a 10^th title, another domestic treble and further progress in Europe as we breached the Champions League knockout round for the first time. Next year would be an historic one for Armenia as a second team entered Europe’s elite, and if we were to make further progress as a nation, we would need other clubs to start pulling their weight. However, our own goals as a club were simple – stay unbeaten in the league, strive for a perfect domestic season, and keep going further in Europe. It was no easy task, but if it was easy it would not be worth our efforts.

[EvilDave]

2026/27

The new campaign began quietly on the transfer front, with no arrivals whatsoever given the paucity of options available to us. It was disappointing to see that our domestic rivals were failing to produce the type of player who could push both my club and country forward, but at the same time it was clear from our most recent campaign that our squad was more than good enough to continue making progress.

A sign of that was the announcement that, due to our consistently impressive European performances, the champions of Armenia would not have to qualify for the Champions League group stages, our nation’s coefficient raised to a point at which we could forego the early rounds of qualification. Not only that, but the league runners-up would be the beneficiaries of a second place in the continent’s finest competition. This season, that would be Shirak, but the identity of the team in question was largely irrelevant – with a fifth European spot for the nation, Armenia now had a real chance to press on and have more teams accompanying us among the continent’s great and good.

To say that the nation had a long way to go was clear in the results of the other four teams attempting to reach their respective group stages. Shirak, so used to playing second fiddle to my Pyunik side, were given a tough draw in Champions League qualifying, but did themselves and their country no favours whatsoever in losing 9-1 on aggregate to Shakhtar Donetsk. Not only that, they squandered a second chance, dropping into the Europa League play-off only to be beaten 5-0 by Slavia Prague. Still, it was one step further than either Ararat or Alashkert managed to progress, the pair entering and exiting at the Europa League third qualifiers after being beaten 6-1 and 8-0 by Dnipro and Rubin respectively – showing the gulf that remained between Armenia and our post-Soviet neighbours.

The one positive result came courtesy of Gandsazar, who reached that same stage before going down 3-0 to Krasnodar. However, having entered a round earlier, they had at least made some small progress by convincingly beating Bosnian outfit Decic Tuzi 4-1 over the two legs, a win that would at least garner some coefficient points for the season to follow. For the time being, my Pyunik would clearly have to carry the hopes of the nation – not only that, but at least maintain our previous level of performance if we were not to immediately lose our automatic Champions League berth.

Having reached the knockout rounds for the first time last season, there was a heightened sense of anticipation as the group stage was drawn this time round, however our poor luck continued with a nightmare of a group – and this despite having advanced to become a third seed. Favourites to progress would be Manchester City, six-time winners of the competition since 2018, while we were also matched with last year’s surprise finalists Porto. The fourth seed out were Red Bull Salzburg, and it appeared that it would be a battle between us and the Austrians for a Europa League berth.

That seemed to be the way of things after the opening round of games, which saw us travel to Manchester and return on the end of a 6-0 thumping, our heaviest in any competition for many years and a real blow to our pride. In recent years we had kept the scores down again even the biggest sides in Europe, but in hindsight the decision to take on City on their own terms was a foolish one. We would learn from the error, but it put us in a poor position for the rest of the competition.

We bounced back well, holding Porto to a goalless draw in Yerevan before heading into the all-important double-header against Red Bull. At home first, a double from Khachatrian in the opening 20 minutes put us in cruise control, and a late third gave us strong momentum going into the return fixture despite a consolation for the visitors. In Salzburg, we were even better – this time was Poghosyan at the double for a comfortable half-time lead, and an own goal midway through the second period meant we were guaranteed European football after Christmas.

But that wasn’t enough – in order to build on last season, we needed Champions League football in the spring, and a 3-0 home defeat by an already-qualified City side meant that we would need to travel to Portugal and avoid defeat in order to progress – helped by Red Bull picking up their solitary point of the campaign at home to the Portuguese side. For 75 of the 90 minutes we were heading out, an early goal putting us behind early on, but late in the day Tigran Andreasyan cut back inside his man in the penalty area and fired a shot low into the corner to earn us the point we needed. Once again, Pyunik were into the last 16, and once again we were on the rise.

[EvilDave]

The draw for the last 16 had a familiar feel to it – having been paired with a North London side last season in Spurs, on this occasion we were matched with their fierce rivals Arsenal, who would of course be heavily favoured for the tie with the second leg being played at the Emirates. However, while the Gunners were undeniably a tough draw, at this stage of the competition it was hard to see any side we would line up as favourites against – we were, after all, now dining at Europe’s top table.

The first leg in Yerevan was barely five minutes old when we put the cat among the pigeons. Winning the ball deep in our own half, a trademark counter saw Minasyan play a ball in behind the Gunners’ defence for Poghosyan to chase, and he beat both his man and the goalkeeper to calmly stroke us into an early lead. Midway through the first half, the same man flicked home an Andreasyan cross at the near post to double the advantage, and suddenly the world began to take notice.

We expected an Arsenal fightback in the second half, but the anticipated onslaught simply never arrived. With an hour gone, Minasyan added to his earlier assist with a rocket of a shot into the top corner from 25 yards, and in the dying embers of the match Poghosyan sent Yerevan into raptures by completing a first-leg hat-trick. We knew we would face a tougher test in London, but with a four-goal lead we felt confident that even an average performance would see us through. We had been that good.

Our confidence was well-placed. To their credit, Arsenal came at us hard, but the damage had already been done, and we knew a single goal would leave our hosts needing six to go through. Two goals behind at half-time was cause for some preliminary jitters, but as the Gunners pressed for more so we punished them on the break, Khachatrian and Toplakaltsyan striking within five minutes of each other to leave the home side needing a miracle. Two more goals did at least earn them a win on the night, but the 6-4 aggregate win, and with it a spot in the last eight, was ours.

We were now truly among the cream of the European game, with our list of prospective opponents reading like a who’s who of the continent’s giants. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico from Spain, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea from England, and French giants PSG were the sides in the way of us and an historic tournament win, and it was Atleti who would come to Yerevan for the first leg. After our escapades against Arsenal, confidence was high. We genuinely believed we could do this.

After 20 minutes, we were right. As the nation sat glued to its TV screens, so Poghosyan gave them reason to believe with a superb hat-trick, putting us three goals to the good before the midway point of the half. However, unlike Arsenal, Atleti did not crumble, and one back before the break left the scoreline finely balanced. A second for the visitors immediately after the break was immediately cancelled out by substitute Putulyan, and the 4-2 scoreline looked to be holding – until five minutes from time, when Oscar Sosa netted Madrid’s third on the night to narrow the gap further. With three away goals against us, we would need to defend brilliantly in Spain while grabbing goals of our own – not impossible, but by no means straightforward.

Unfortunately for us, our hosts left nothing to chance, turning in an irrepressible performance and hitting us for four unanswered goals as every attack of ours broke down against a red and white striped wall. 7-4 seemed like a harsh aggregate score, but we could hold our heads high in defeat – we had broken new ground, gone blow-for-blow with one of Europe’s finest, and not been disgraced. Next year, we would back, and our appetite for this new level of competition was high. We were starting to feel like we belonged.

[EvilDave]

Back at home, normal business was resumed. The curtain-raising Super Cup saw a 3-0 lead almost evaporate in the final 10 minutes against Shirak, but we were able to deny our closest domestic rivals a third to ensure that the first piece of silverware of the season would be staying firmly where it belonged. As fate would have it, we were matched with the same opposition in the first round of the cup, where a 3-1 home win was followed by a matching performance in Gyumri booked us two dates with Banants in the final four.

At home in the first leg, a double from emerging left winger Denis Khugaev did the damage as we cruised to a 3-0 win, rendering our cross-town trip for the return match almost redundant. There, Khugaev netted again in a 2-1 win, booking yet another final and another meeting with Gandsazar, who had also enjoyed an easy ride to the showpiece. Our dominance showed however, and a hat-trick from Poghosyan was the highlight of a 5-1 thumping which left our rivals in no doubt as to our continued supremacy. If anything, we were moving further away.

That was very much the message in the opening set of league fixtures too, as we conceded just a single goal in our first seven matches – frustrating the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Alashkert. Elsewhere we were supreme, beating Shirak and Mika 4-0 and 6-0 at home and travelling to Kotayk for a 5-0 win featuring two own goals from the home side – as if we needed the help.

That record of six wins and a draw was matched in the second septet, with our defence this time managing to go one better with seven successive clean sheets. This time the dropped points came away at Mika, both clubs missing a penalty in an increasingly rare goalless draw, while it was Kotayk’s turn to be hit for six. A 4-0 rout of Alashkert was accompanied by four wins by a three-goal margin, and this was rapidly turning into our most dominant season yet.

We were left with two games before the winter break, both of which saw us break form and concede a goal. The first came at Shirak, where Hovhannes Poghosyan broke league records for the fastest hat-trick in Armenian history, smashing in the first three of a 6-1 win inside the opening six minutes of the match to render the other 84 somewhat redundant. The second was in a frustrating 1-1 away at Alashkert, but even then our talismanic striker took the headlines, his equalising goal marking his 300^th in the league in just 298 Pyunik appearances. In any other league, he would have been hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime talent – here in Armenia, he struggled to break into the national team for reasons no-one could truly fathom.

That draw saw us head into the winter break with a 14-point gap between ourselves and Alashkert, with the rest of the league bunched up in a bid for the second Champions League spot. Over the break, the biggest news came in the form of interest in Andreasyan from none other than Champions League winners-to-be Barcelona, but as ever I was ever to lock our star talents to the club by a combination of coercion – exercising lengthy contract extension options – and persuasion, reinforcing my own belief that Pyunik had the capacity to continue developing to the point of something not all too dissimilar to Barcelona. Once upon a time it would have been nothing but a flight of fancy – with our recent European record, it was no increasingly believable.

Upon the resumption, we hit the ground running in a 5-0 demolition of Gandsazar, following it up with the same scoreline in Kotayk and Banats before only managing four at home to Ararat. The third set of games concluded with a 3-0 home win over Mika, leaving us a huge 19 points clear of the nearest challengers and with the possibility of securing the title with a win in our very next – at home to the Alashkert side currently in the runners-up berth.

If our superiority was in any way in doubt, those doubts were quickly crushed in the title decider, braces from Poghosyan and Khachatrian inside the opening half hour allowing our fans to start the party early. The only disappointment was that we added only more, a powerful header from centre-back Adamyan, but 5-0 was more than convincing enough to seal the deal. We had six games left to go through the motions and rack up the scores, while our rivals were left scrapping for second. It was a fine thing to look at the league table.

Still, we had an unbeaten record to defend, and so we would not let us in the those closing matches – even if we did allow our opponents two goals on the only two occasions of the league season. On both occasions we had already secured the win, and after five victories from five, our final gaol of the season, a Khugaev strike in a 4-2 win away at Mika, marked our 100^th of the campaign, the goals coming at a rate of almost four a game.

In the end it was Banants who crept up on the outside to steal second from Alashkert, edging out our long-term challengers by a single point. Gandsazar and Shirak would follow them and take Europa League berths as a result, whilst at the bottom it was Kotayk who bade farewell, their 14 points not nearly good enough to survive. Second-bottom Mika, with 20, were as close to the runners-up as Banants were to ourselves, again showing the huge gulf between ourselves and everyone else.

It also meant three successive unbeaten seasons at home, and with our big guns firing on all cylinders again – Poghosyan’s 35 league goals and 52 in all competitions was his best since 2022/23 – it promised more of the same in seasons to come. More importantly, it was a year of yet more unprecedented progress in Europe, and it genuinely felt like we were beginning to be regarded as more than a simple anomaly on the continental stage. To go further next year would be tough, almost impossible even, but if I did not believe it to be possible I would not be here. And yet here I am.

[EvilDave]

2027/28

Another year, more progress – not content with giving Armenia an automatic Champions League and a second qualification berth, UEFA announced that our progress would see an automatic qualifier to the Europa League as well, the third place finisher able to forego the qualification rounds they had thus far failed to get close to winning. It was an interesting development, but I suspect one which would confirm our league rivals’ inferiority rather than spring any major surprises.

For ourselves, it was back to business as usual – a handful of talented teens through the doors and into the youth teams, and a couple of veterans allowed to leave after years of service. This time the two key men were Aram Shakhnazaryan, a one-time club captain who had struggled to get game time in recent years and had expressed a desire to retire and move into other areas of life. Joining him in leaving was Robert Hakobyan, his fellow centre-back who had reached almost 300 league games for the club, but had slowed down too much to stay in contention. Banants were prepared to raise a six-figure sum to take him off our hands, and we wished him well in his new venture – just not too well.

While we embarked on a pre-season warm-up tour of neighbouring Georgia, our domestic challengers began their own European campaigns much earlier. Shirak were the first to go in the second stage of Europa League qualifying, but failed miserably, letting down themselves and their country in a penalty shoot-out loss to Moldovan outfit Dacia. In the next round, Gandsazar were a more respectable failure in losing 3-0 to AEK of Athens, while Banants put up little fight in their Champions League efforts, being beaten 7-0 over two legs by Dynamo Kyiv and then losing by five in the Europa play-off to Hapeol Be’er-Sheva. Another year, no progress.

That is except for Alashkert, who took advantage of UEFA’s generosity by taking a spot in Group L of the Europa League, joined by CSKA Moscow, Marseille and Sparta Prague. Hopelessly outmatched for the most part, there was one evening of unexpected joy with a surprise 2-1 win over the Czechs at home, the win no doubt helping our coefficient even further. They did of course bow out with no further points, but their win would hopefully give them confidence to kick on in future years – assuming they got that far again.

As for ourselves, now entrenched in the third group of Champions League seeds and nearing the second pot for the first time in our history, the draw continued to let us down. PSV were our fourth seeds, undoubtedly a better team than the Salzburg side we had swatted aside last season, and joining them from the first two pots were Arsenal – no doubt keen for revenge after our knockout win last time round – and Juventus, the Turin giants clear favourites after their long-term domination of Serie A. We would need strong performances against one or both of the top two to make progress, but recent history was at least on our side.

An opening day win over PSV, and a comfortable 2-0 home win at that, got us off on the right foot, but an aberration at the Emirates brought us crashing back down. The Gunners’ pent-up frustration at last season came back to bite us, and despite not playing horrendously, we found ourselves 4-0 down at the break. We fought back valiantly, but 4-3 was worth just as few points as 4-0, and we slumped to defeat. Welcoming Juventus to Yerevan, we did manage the comeback, coming from two down at the interval to draw courtesy of a brace from young Ashot Ghazaryan, but we needed to stop letting our opponents get a jump on us. With four points from the first round of games, it was still all to play for.

A narrow reverse in Turin was nothing to be ashamed of, but the 2-1 defeat meant we were running out of time to get the result we needed. Away in Eindhoven, we conspired to put in one of our worst European performances for many a year, rescuing a point only in the 86^th minute with a fortuitous Ghazaryan deflection, but it was too late – we were destined for the Europa once again. A goalless draw at home to Arsenal would have been positive any other year, but the facts were that we had won only one game, and handed PSV their only point of the competition. It was not good enough, and we had clearly taken a step backwards.

[EvilDave]

Our Europa hopes did not look overly promising either, as the draw handed us an unfavourable tie in the last 32 with Roma, Champions League regulars with the capacity to beat us handily on their day. In the first leg at home, neither side was adventurous enough to deserve the win, but a late strike from youth product Artem Hovhannisyan handed us the narrowest of leads to take to the Olimpico and defend.

But we had no intention of simply defending, and a rapid start took our Italian hosts by surprise, earning us a 2-0 lead after just half an hour. A quick reply from the Romans gave them hope, but our two away goals gave us a firm advantage, and even an equaliser on the night shortly after the interval did not trouble us too much. However, a third goal in the 87^th meant that our opponents needed just one more to send us crashing out, and the urgency finally reached my men. Unhappy at blowing a two-goal lead to taste defeat, Poghosyan stabbed home in stoppage time to see us through 3-3 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate – it had been far closer than it had any right to be.

Marseille were next, and compared to the Roma game things were a little more straightforward – although the scoreline would not necessarily suggest as much. Away in France we took the lead twice only to be pegged back quickly on both occasions, but aside from the two goals Marseille never truly threatened our defence. At home, Poghosyan put us into the lead and then saw an opposing defender sent off before striking again, and a third goal after the hour mark gave us the insurance we needed. A late and unfortunate own goal from keeper Aslanyan gave the French side their consolation, but that was all it was.

The late scare against Roma aside, we now found us into the quarters without having faced too great a threat. Of the teams that remained, there were one or two – Bayern, Chelsea, Manchester United – who like us had dropped out of the Champions League and would be strong favourites against us over two legs, but approximately half of our prospective opponents looked beatable, which was an exciting place to be in. One such side was German outfit Wolfsburg, and with the first left at home we had the opportunity to seal the deal inside 90 minutes.

As ever in big European games, we tried to come out of the blocks quickly and take our visitors by surprise, and on this occasion the move worked to perfection. Inside 10 minutes Andreasyan had given us the lead, and after a further 15 it was 2-0, young Hovhannisyan tucking in at the back post to double our advantage. Unfortunately at that point the Germans woke up, Ulrich Steiner firing beyond Aslanyan for a valuable away goal that looked as if could spark a comeback. That looked to be especially true five minutes before the interval, when Karen Toplakaltsyan launched himself into a 50/50 challenge with a little too much force, leading the Swedish to brandish a straight red card to our midfield man. A tactical reshuffle at the break would emphasise the need to counter strongly, but in reality we were looking at needing a big performance away in Germany.

Or so we thought. As the clock ticked towards the hour, Andreasyan got clear down the right and crossed for substitute Khachatrian to restore our two-goal lead. Then, as Wolfsburg tried desperately to maximise on their numerical advantage, they left themselves open once again, this time conceding a free kick 30 yards out which Minasyan thundered into the top corner. When the final whistle blew 20 minutes later, there had been no further scoring, and barring a complete collapse in the away leg, we would find ourselves back in the semis.

That was indeed the case, an early Poghosyan goal easing our nerves before a rally from the home side put them 2-1 up on the night. While not idea, we were happy enough with that arrangement given our home result, but even so a late equaliser from Khachatrian earned us parity and a comfortable 6-3 aggregate win. That meant progress, and a repeat of last time we had got this far – a two-legged tie with Chelsea for the right to take on Manchester United or Benfica in the final.

Last time against the Blues, we had given a decent account of ourselves but ultimately gone down 5-2 thanks largely to the talents of Paulo Dybala – man who had now moved on, his departure giving us hope given that he scored four of Chelsea’s five goals in our last meetings. However, any hope we had we quickly disappeared after just six minutes in London, first Thomas Lemar and then David Clarke-Williams beating Aslanyan to leave us with a mountain to climb.

There was little to play for but pride at this stage, and yet that all changed when, completely against the run of play, Khachatrian got on the end of a precision cross from the Artur Nadiryan to head us back within a goal of the hosts and give us something to hold onto. Of course, on the stroke of half-time Kurt Zouma headed in from a corner to make it 3-1, and we were looking at an uphill battle once again.

The slope got even steeper after the break when Lemar netted his second of the match, but a loss of concentration as the game drew to a close gave us the faintest glimmer of hope for the home leg, Khachatrian getting his second to leave us 4-2 down heading to Yerevan. We needed to win by two goals and limit the Blues to one goal or fewer to reach the final – it was the tallest of orders, but we had to at least give it a go.

[EvilDave]

Some of my Pyunik side’s best performances in European competition had come with our backs to the wall, but heading into the second leg of the Chelsea tie, even that faint hope seemed excessive. The opening passages saw things settle into an easy rhythm, the Blues holding onto the majority of possession and producing more shooting opportunities that my men. We were looking decidedly outmatched.

But as long as the game stayed goalless, a single score would frighten the visitors and give us something tangible to grab onto. So when, with 33 minutes on the clock, Poghosyan rifled his first effort of the match into the very top corner from 20 yards out, we believed. Chelsea, to this point the dominant side, looked shaken. If we could score with our first shot on target, why not others?

That was the question I asked of my men at the break, with a just a single goal separating us from the final. Of course, a Chelsea equaliser would set us back to square one, but for all their possession and speculative efforts, a combination of firm defending a good goalkeeping from Aslanyan meant that they had seemed like scoring. In the opening moments of the second half Lemar struck a post and Clarke-Williams fired wide, but we were keeping them at arm’s length. We now needed to reel them in.

And miraculously, we did just that. A crossfield ball from left-back Toplakaltsyan found Andreasyan on the right, and his cross looked to be overhit until Khugaev appeared right on cue to tuck it away at the far post. A nation celebrated, Chelsea looked stunned, and we were 20 minutes away from the Europa League final. Those 20 minutes became 10, Clarke-Williams volleying over from a good position, then five, veteran Varane nodding over from a corner. Three minutes of stoppage time came and went, and finally the referee blew his whistle. Despite having less than 40% of the ball and fewer than half the number of shots of our opponents, we had done it. Pyunik, who nobody outside of Armenia had heard of when I took over the club, would play Manchester United in Lisbon in the 2028 Europa League final.

[EvilDave]

At home, our European distractions did nothing to derail the Pyunik machine. The season-opening Super Cup was a little less comfortable that perhaps we had been used to, but it still took until the 78^th minute for opponents Gandsazar to register their first shot on target. Typically it found its way into the back of our net, but by that time we had already established a 2-0 lead with our shadow side, meaning that the least important of silverware stayed in our cabinet. Glorified friendly though it may be, we still have no desire to be beaten by domestic rivals.

The same was true of the cup, which played host to heavily rotated sides throughout the tournament. Alashkert held us to a 1-0 win away from home, meaning a more senior side took to the field for the return leg, two Poghosyan goals helping us to a 3-0 aggregate win that was harder than it perhaps should have been. Shirak were simply steamrollered in the semis, being blitzed 7-0 over the two legs to earn us smooth passage into the final, where after 80 minutes we found ourselves behind against Banants and facing the serious prospect of losing our trophy.

That was, of course, until substitute Ashot Ghazaryan popped up with two goals in four minutes to turn the game on its head and ensure that when the final whistle blew it would be Pyunik hands on the trophy once again. We had been run closer than we would have liked, but a win was a win nonetheless, and the more we did it, the more other clubs would have to come to accept that Armenian silverware was on lockdown.

As if to hammer home the point, we opened the league game in strong form, dismissing Ararat 4-0 in the opener before travelling to Mika and smashing seven unanswered goals past them in the opening 45 minutes. That there were no more in the second period was a little disappointing but utterly irrelevant, and we followed it up by edging past Alashkert 1-0 for our 100^th unbeaten league game in a row. 16 goals shared out across our next four matches, including six at newly-promoted Shenghavit, meant we completed the first stage of the league with a perfect record and our defence unbreached, already eight points clear of nearest challengers Banants. There was little point in evening playing out the rest of the season.

But such arguments would not wash with the powers that be, and so we continued. A goalless draw at Ararat saw our first points dropped, but five straight wins saw us race further clearer of our rivals at the halfway point, the solitary goal conceded coming in the 86^th minute of an otherwise perfect 6-1 romp over the same side at home. Two more games before the break saw us held 1-1 at Mika, before we turned our frustrations on the same side back at home. Poghosyan and Khachatrian both hit hat-tricks, we led 4-0 after 20 minutes, and the final whistle blew with us just one away from double figures. That would teach them.

With the pause doing little other than allowing some of Europe’s top sides to cast envious glances over my decidedly unavailable young talents, we stuttered back into life with a 2-2 draw at second-place Banants, the first and only time we would concede twice in the same league fixture this year. Shirak were dealt with 2-0, before Poghosyan put on a striking clinic at Sheghavit. We found the net eight times as a team, our talisman grabbing six of them for himself, and by following his show with a 3-0 win in Kapan over Gandsazar we put ourselves just a handful of points from yet another league crown, sitting 17 points clear of Banants with six games remaining.

It proved to be just three points – a Banants draw with Alashkert allowing us to claim the title with a simple 1-0 win at Ararat. With our main job done, we continued to win until the end with a single exception, closing out the campaign with a 3-0 win over our nearest challengers to show off the gap. In that game, left winger David Hakobyan marked his final game as a professional by setting up Poghosyan for the second goal, a fine and appropriate send-off for the 35-year-old who had endeared himself to the Pyunik faithful with loyal service and consistent performances over the years, even when those same years had clearly caught up with him. He was probably capable of playing on in the league and domestic cups, but our European progress had left him far behind in his twilight years – even so, he would retire with the very best of Pyunik’s wishes.

Looking back over the domestic campaign, we had reason to be proud. We may have dropped eight points over the 28 games – a couple more than our recent average – but we had once again gone through the entire campaign undefeated, taking our league run to 125 without loss. Up front, the likes of Poghosyan, Khachatrian and Ghazaryan did not quite match our century of goals from last season but were not far off, while at the back we set a new record by conceding just nine goals all year.

Elsewhere in the league, Banants’ haul of 45 points, despite being a full 31 behind ourselves, was enough to earn them a shot at Champions League qualification, while Mika the club heading into the Europa groups. Gandsazar would enter the qualifiers for the secondary competition, but the real surprise was the identity of the club joining them. 30 points was enough for newly-promoted Shenghavit to not only survive – the first club do so following promotion since my tenure began – but finish 5^th, earning them a European spot. Behind them, it was a nightmare season for Shirak, Alashkert and Ararat, who all finished on 28 points. With games won the key decider, it was the latter who dropped down having won just six matches all year, while the others lived to fight on.

However, for weeks now our focus had not been on the league, but on Europe. Having missed the Champions League cut, we had dropped into the Europa and vanquished Roma, Marseille and Wolfsburg before being paired with Chelsea in the final four. A 4-2 away defeat gave us the faintest of glimmers of hopes, and yet somehow we had turned it round with a 2-0 home win to progress on away goals. Our reward was a final in Lisbon against Manchester United, and the chance to make yet more history for club and country.

[EvilDave]

On the face of things, this was no contest. In the red corner were Manchester United, one of the titans of world football with a budget which probably rivalled that of the entire Armenian government. Their side was littered with experienced international stars and promising young talents, while the man at the helm, Jose Mourinho, had forged a dynasty which was on the brink of challenging the legacy left by the great Sir Alex Ferguson. After a disappointing Champions League group stage, they had brushed aside Napoli, Sporting, Dortmund and Benfica on the way to the final, conceding just four goals in the process. Having narrowly missed out on the Premier League title, they were in fine form and strong favourites.

In the blue corner were Pyunik Yerevan, until recently an unknown name outside their native Armenia, and a club with a European history which could be summarised in few words. Unlike their star-studded opponents, Pyunik boasted a side which contained only Armenian nationals, the domestic champions supplying the overwhelming majority of their national side – a side which had never qualified for a major international competition, nor had it progressed beyond Division C of the pan-European Nations League. Knockout days against Roma and Chelsea had seen the underdogs squeak through by the narrowest of margins, while Marseille and Wolfsburg had proven slightly easier opponents. Still, United were an entirely different proposition.

The match would be played at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz, with the hosts themselves unfortunate not to be taking part after being defeated by United at the semi-final stage. The Manchester club’s fans, so used to dominating in the stands in neutral games, were matched song for song but what appeared to be half the population of Armenia, the Pyunik fans attracting plaudits from across the continent for their vociferous support. With the Europa League anthem sung, it was left to United to kick off, and having shook Mourinho’s hand I settled into my dugout for the ride.

Five minutes in, the first big chance of the game arrived. Two of United’s French veterans combined to fashion the opportunity, Paul Pogba slipping a pass inside Nadiryan for Anthony Martial to collect and fire goalwards. Fortunately, Karen Aslanyan was well-positioned to make the save to the applause of the Pyunik faithful in the stands, no doubt boosting his confidence on such a big occasion.

As in the Chelsea games, it became clear early on that we would be a distant second in terms of possession, but this was not something any of my players were overly concerned by. We had built European success for years on the basis of an excellent counter-attacking game, and with the pace we had in the final third, we could do damage to any side. Midway through the half, we showed United what we capable of, Khugaev weaving past two before crossing for Poghosyan to sidefoot just wide of the far post. Goalkeeper Unai Martinez was not particularly close, and the fans in red breathed a sigh of relief. We were very much in the game.

United would fashion the next chances, young central midfielder Mark Robson stinging Aslanyan’s palms before Swedish forward Lars Skutelis heading just over with our goalkeeper stranded. Marcus Rashford then chose to get in on the act, leaving Mikhail Andreasyan in his wake before blazing a shot over the bar from the edge of the area. We were living dangerously – but so were United, who needed their goalkeeper to deny Khachatrian after Tigran Andreasyan’s ball into the channel. With the first half drawing to a close, the final remained finely balanced.

However, the deadlock would be broken before the break. Robbing Minasyan of the ball in midfield, Pogba slid an inch-perfect pass between our two centre-backs for Rashford to run onto. The 30-year-old put on the afterburners to break clear of his pursuers, and then sent half of the Estadio da Luz wild with a placed, curling effort into the bottom corner. Moments later the half-time whistle would blow, and we had quite the job to do to get back on level terms. Still, we had overcome the odds before – there was a steely confidence among my men as they went out for the second period.

United too came out strong, but their confidence almost cost them, a loose pass from Robson allowing Khachatrian the chance to shoot and only a full-stretch dive from Martinez keeping his side ahead. Poghosyan then tested the Spaniard with a powerful header, but as the hour mark ticked past we remained a goal behind.

It was almost two as we moved into the final quarter of the match, with only the linesman’s flag denying Skutelis a tap-in at the far post after some trickery on the left from Martial. Shortly after, Aslanyan somehow kept out a bullet header from centre-back Sunday Ofere at a corner, and we were struggling to get a foothold in the match. Into final 10 minutes, we were still searching for a goal, for the one chance that would allow us to take the game into extra time.

The chance came sure, Karen Toplakaltsyan’s interception in the centre circle allowing him to find Andreasyan in space on the right. He skinned substitute Mark Grayson to reach the byline, cutting the ball back for Poghosyan to turn goalwards. The stadium held its breath as Martinez flung himself low down at his near post in vain, only to watch the ball bounce off the post and behind for a goal kick. Three minutes later the final whistle blew, and we had fallen at the last hurdle. My men could be proud of their efforts, but they were ultimately not enough. United had edged us out in a remarkably even encounter, and it was Mourinho and his men who could celebrate. Our flight back to Yerevan was a sombre one, but there was something about my players that filled me with hope. Having had one taste of the big occasion, there was an appetite for more – and we didn’t fail twice very often.

[EvilDave]

2028/29

We could not afford to dwell on our Europa League final defeat – after all, although it felt like a failure, we had never been expected to get as far as we had. One the other hand, our finest European run to date had once again come in the secondary competition having fallen out of the Champions League far too early, and so far from attempting to repeat the performance, it was our job to make sure that we never again had to set foot in the Europa League. Winning it would have been the perfect goodbye to the competition, but we had to make sure our defeat did the same thing.

In order to aid our chances, we took part in the biggest cull of the club since I had taken over, selling on no fewer than 12 players and releasing a handful more – including six-figure signing Gor Agbaljan at the end of his contract – as my ruthless streak came out. We had no need for the money, but with a number of highly promising youngsters in the ranks, I had no desire to see their progress stunted by previous failures. Exciting youngsters who had developed into mere run-of-the-mill players were moved on around the league, and the hope was that by giving our starlets space to breathe, they would repay our faith with growth.

With five teenagers coming in to the youth and reserve sides, and the promotion of promising young winger Armen Petrosyan to the first team to compete with Khugaev on the left wing, we were well set for another assault on Europe’s final front. However, as ever we would not be the only Armenian side to be taking part on the continental stage – and once again we very quickly found ourselves the only club standing.

Banants were the second entrant to the Champions League, and while they acquitted themselves markedly better than some of their predecessors – earning a goalless home draw with Zenit in the second leg – their 3-0 away defeat saw them drop into the Europa play-off, where another Russian outfit, Lokomotiv Moscow beat them 2-1 twice in a week to end their hopes.

Also in the Europa League, surprise qualifiers Shenghavit failed to maximise on their opportunity by falling 4-0 to Belarusian side Shakhter Soligorsk in the second qualifying round, while Gandsazar entered in the subsequent round and came very close to an upset, a goalless home draw with Mlada Boleslav leaving them just a single goal after a 3-2 defeat in the Czech Republic. Finally, Mika’s third place had earned them direct group stage qualification, but a tough group of Sevilla, PAOK and Krasnodar left them pointless and heavily beaten on every occasion. We could only hope the experience would do them good.

Having faced years of difficult draws in the Champions League, 2028 will be remembered as the year we finally got a bit of luck. With UEFA handing top seeding to the champions of Europe’s top eight leagues, we were fortunate to be matched with Turkish champions Besiktas as our top seed, followed by Porto as seconds. We remained in the third pot, perhaps only one more year from graduating to the second grouping, and were joined from the fourth seeds by Swiss side Basel. With no obvious tournament contenders in the quartet, we fancied our chances of getting through – and perhaps even topping the group.

Such thoughts were dented after 42 minutes in Switzerland, when Karen Hakobyan earned himself a second yellow with a cynical trip in midfield and reduced us to 10 men. We were leading 1-0 at the time, but before too long our hosts turned things round and we were staring down the barrel of an embarrassing opening defeat. In the end we were rescued by a fine finish from Poghosyan with around 20 minutes to go, but dropping points against the bottom seeds had not been part of the plan. We rebounded emphatically, smashing Besiktas 5-1 in Yerevan, before a last-gasp goal at home to Porto condemned us to defeat and left us struggling with just four points at the halfway stage. However, with each club stealing points from the others, we remained in with a chance.

It was a chance which was both helped and hindered by a 1-1 draw in Portugal, on the one hand a positive result against the group leaders and on the other leaving us with just five points from four matches. However, an 85^th-minute winner from substitute Ghazaryan sent our fans into raptures at home to Basel, and it meant we needed just a single point in Istanbul to go through – and even less if Basel failed to beat already-qualified Porto. 2-0 down after half an hour and with the Swiss side a goal to the good we looked dead and buried, but we had reckoned without Hovhannes Poghosyan. A 34^th-minute penalty, bullet header on the hour mark and cool near-post flick 10 minutes from time earned us a remarkable comeback win. It turned out to be irrelevant as Porto turned their own game around, but it certainly gave us confidence as we moved back into the knockout rounds with six points separating us from the Europa League spot. It felt good to be back.

[EvilDave]

Guaranteed to face off against one the group winners, there were plenty of sides who would have been heavily favoured to dump us unceremoniously out in the round of 16, but Atletico Madrid were perhaps not one of them. They would undoubtedly be favoured, having come through a difficult group to emerge as winners, but we had beaten them at home in the past, and if we improved our defensive showing would at least stand a chance against the Spaniards.

Five minutes into the first leg in Yerevan that chance seemed a small one as Celso Luiz smashed a free kick into our top corner, but we were behind for all of 45 seconds. From the restart young talent Petrosyan got free down the left and crossed for Poghosyan to turn home, and although we had given up an away goal, we were level again. Before the interval our goalscorer had struck the post on not one but two further occasions, and we were actually on top against one of Europe’s top sides.

There would be a further strike of the woodwork, this time from Petrosyan, as we pushed for the winner, and in the end it was his replacement Khugaev who got it, appropriately firing in off the post midway through the second half to give us a 2-1 lead to take to Madrid, where Tigran Andreasyan wrapped up a perfect first half by giving us an away goal of our own. Luiz levelled on the night with 20 minutes to play, but on this occasion our defence held firm to deny the Spaniards and put us into the quarters for just the second time in our history. Few could argue that we didn’t deserve it.

In the last eight we would head to New Anfield for the opening leg, and as against Atletico we quickly found ourselves a goal down. Filippo Melegoni was the man to score it, the veteran Italian slotting beyond Aslanyan to give the hosts an early lead, the 1-0 scoreline holding until well into the second half. However, when a change came it was in our favour, Ashot Ghazaryan turning in Andreasyan’s cross with his first touch after coming on as a substitute to stun the Merseyside club. 10 minutes later, strike partner Khachatrian did the same from an almost identical cross, and we held on for perhaps our biggest win yet. An away win against a top English side was not to be sniffed at, and we had every chance of making the last four.

They were chances that we took, as we treated our home fans to a match for the ages in Yerevan. Just before the midway point of the first half Khachatrian opened the scoring, followed a few minutes by a thunderous free-kick from Minasyan to put us 4-1 up on aggregate. There was more to come – a corner allowed Mikhail Andreasyan to bury a towering header for a 3-0 lead on the night, only for an unfortunate own goal for our keeper, the ball bouncing off the post and onto his back, to narrow it to 3-1 before the interval. There were still nine minutes later of the half, and after six of them Khachatrian slotted it to make it 4-1, and we were surely cruising into the semi-finals.

10 minutes after the break the Reds pulled a second goal back, but they still needed four more in less than a single half of football, and that was reckoning without our on-form counter-attack. Liverpool did get a third five minutes from the end, but by that time Ghazaryan had put things beyond all doubt with our fifth of the evening, wrapping up a 7-4 aggregate win that sent shockwaves around Europe. We were into the final four for the first time, and there was recent history with every one of our possible opponents.

Manchester United we knew all too well, having been beaten in last year’s Europa League final by the Red Devils. Porto had topped our group stage quartet, beating us in Yerevan and sharing a 1-1 draw in Portugal, while we had edged out Roma in the last 32 of last year’s Europa, the Italians causing us plenty of problems but ultimately falling just short in a classic two-legged affair. As fate would have it, it was the Italians who came out of the hat after us, leaving fans licking their lips at the prospect of another spectacular match or two. We did not disappoint.

In Yerevan, there was a real sense of expectation as we took to the field with the Italians – this was the furthest we had ever been in the competition, and we were up against a side we had beaten over two legs before. We attempted to blitz the visitors out of the gate, but by the half hour mark Roma had managed to stifle our attack, holding us goalless despite our best efforts. However, minutes later the game roared into life, and it was all we could do to keep up.

It began, as some many of our finest moment have over the years, with Poghosyan, our talisman driving a shot through a crowded area to give us the lead. It was a lead that would last just five minutes, Randy van der Zwan heading past Aslanyan for 1-1, but on the stroke of half time Poghosyan was celebrating again after heading us into a second lead of the evening right before the interval. Three minutes into the second period, van der Zwan levelled for the second time, before turning provider 15 minutes later for Alessandro Monti, and suddenly we were behind and in trouble.

For all of 30 seconds, before Poghosyan completed yet another hat-trick from the penalty spot after Petrosyan was brought down in the area. Locked at 3-3, we needed another goal to take any sort of advantage to the Italian capital, and with 10 minutes to go we finally got there, Poghosyan wrapping up a superb individual performance by squaring for Ghazaryan to roll home. 4-3 was the final score, and at half time we were ahead in a Champions League semi.

The away leg was nowhere near as dramatic – a goal each for Poghosyan and Khachatrian in the opening seven minutes meant Roma were always going to struggle, and even when van der Zwan grabbed his third of the tie before the break we were in control. They needed two more, our defence was holding firm, and even an injury-time strike from their in-form Dutchman could not derail us. 4-3 at home, 2-2 away, we had done it – Pyunik were heading to the Champions League final.

Lying in wait, after winning both legs of their semi-final by a single goal, were Manchester United. Having met them in the Europa League final last season, we would cross paths again in the Berlin for the biggest game of them all. This time, we were determined to come out on top.

[EvilDave]

Before our showdown at the Olympiastadion though, there was the day-to-day business of domestic football. Last season, we had brushed aside all comers one again, taking our unbeaten record to 125 league games and adding to it with two more cup trophies, and the expectation was that, with our squad trimmed down and ready for battle on all fronts, we would continue to pull away at the top of the Armenian game.

However, our plans for complete domination took a blow in the very first game of the season, the traditional Super Cup. Facing off against league runners-up Banants, we went a goal down early on only to quickly equalise, but a sudden and unexplained capitulation saw us concede twice in quick succession to go in 3-1 behind at the interval. A second half rally, complete with substitute appearances from more senior players, saw us pull it back to 3-2, but surprisingly our rivals held firm to deny us the trophy. It was not the most important competition for us to lose, but we had still lost – and that was a warning worth paying attention to.

As such, the team which took to the field in each stage of the national cup was a little stronger than in previous years, with only those fixtures falling near European games seeing the heavy rotation I had previously employed. Despite this, Kotayk still managed to net three times across our two legs, which would have been impressive had we not hit seven ourselves in what became something of a procession. In the semis, a 4-1 win at Shirak meant a frustrating 1-1 draw at home – in which the Gyumri side scored with their only shot on target in the 85^th minute – was irrelevant, and we earned the chance for revenge in the final against Banants.

Having beaten us in the Super Cup, our opponents were more confident than they otherwise would have been, but that confidence was tempered by the fact that we had beaten them in all four of our league meetings in the meantime, and most recently in a 5-1 home romp that had secured the title. With confidence coursing through our own veins thanks to our supreme league form and European progress, we took an early lead and never looked back, Petrosyan’s opening goal added to by reserve right winger Kirakosyan and a late own goal as we got our revenge and lifted the trophy once again.

As mentioned above, the cup was the lesser part of a domestic double, and if anyone was in doubt about our continued ability to dominate the league, we hit the track running with 6-1 opening day demolition of Gandsazar which saw Vahe Khachatrian make an early bid for the Golden Boot with four goals. We would continue in much the same vein, winning our first 11 matches to give us a huge lead over our rivals, with only Banants giving us any trouble – in our first encounter, three goals in the last five minutes turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-2 win, whereas our second saw Poghosyan stab in a 89^th-minute winner to avoid our first dropped points of the season.

However, three weeks later, after 6-0 and 2-0 wins at home to Kotayk and Shirak, we were held goalless away at Shenghavit to ruin the dream of a perfect league season and lose our first two points of the year. Mika, Gandsazar (twice) and Alashkert were all beaten comfortably to see us 11 clear at the winter break, which we spent mostly fending off bids for young Petrosyan – our teenage winger impressing enough in his first half-season of senior football to earn approaches from the top clubs in Spain, Italy, England and France. We were in no mood to sell, he was in no hurry to move on at such a young age, and so Europe’s elite left empty-handed.

After the return of the league we continued at the same high level, scoring four in each of our first three games before Shenghavit limited us to just two. A 4-1 win at Mika wrapped up the third round of fixtures and sent us 16 points clear of a Banants side who were comfortably clear in second, and leaving us needing two more wins for the title. Alashkert were the first victims, going down 3-0 to move us to within a single victory of success, and fittingly it was the eventual runners-up who would give us the title, our 5-1 thrashing of our city rivals leaving little doubt as to which side remained dominant.

That left us with five games to try and set a new benchmark by dropping just two points in a season, and the following week a 3-0 win over Kotayk in our third straight game saw us continue our form. Shirak almost derailed us only to fall to a late Ghazaryan strike, Shenghavit were powerless to resist us in a 3-0 away win, leaving only Mika standing between us and the new record. With the score 1-1 at the hour mark it looked briefly as if we might be denied at the last, but a long-range effort from Tigran Minasyan proved to be the winner as we wrapped up a record-breaking year – 82 points of a possible 84, a mere eight goals conceded, and all in addition a second tier season which had seen our reserve squad top their own table unbeaten for the first time.

However, as in the previous season, our focus was now very firmly elsewhere as the rest of the league headed away on holiday for the summer. We had one more game to play, one more game in which to make history. At the Olympiastadion in Berlin, we would meet Manchester United in a European final for the second time in as many years. This time however, it was the big one – the Champions League final.

[EvilDave]

Leaving the Pyunik boardroom before heading to Zvartnots Airport, I felt a sense of calm rush over me. Calmness was nothing unusual in my demeanour – many had credited some of Pyunik’s finest comebacks to my resolute belief and unflinching belief in both my players and tactics – but on this occasion I felt what can only be described as complete contentment for the first time in a long time.

Since my appointment as Pyunik manager, I had been striving towards a goal. Specifically, the goals of first qualifying the club for a European group stage, and then securing Pyunnik’ position on the continental stage so that they could not possibly be regarded as footballing minnows any more. We were eclipse our initial rivals – the likes of neighbouring Georgia and Azerbaijan – and establish rivalries with Europe’s biggest names, going toe-to-toe and blow-for-blow with giants of the world game. It was an impossible dream, and yet we had succeeded according to every conceivable measure. Pyunik were not only no longer minnows, but genuine contenders for European trophies.

With that knowledge secure in my own mind and shared by those in control of the club, I had come to a conclusion – it was time for me to walk away. I had no idea who my successor would be, and there was a point to which I no longer cared. I had given myself a task – nobody had forced me into this venture – and, having accomplished my goals, there was little left for me to do.

There were those who no doubt feel another decade on the sidelines would ensure that Pyunik would become annual challengers for the biggest prizes, but I had already given 13 years of my life to the club, and I felt we were now at a stage where, to avoid falling away, we would need other Tigran Zakaryans to take the helm at the likes of Banants, Shirak and Gandsazar. Until European progress was expected across Armenia, clubs would lack the funding to improve their infrastructure and produce the players they would need to improve further. It was a lengthy cycle, and not one I could have any control over. They would have to go it alone.

There was a risk in my departure, of course there was – without my iron grip on the wheel of the club, there would almost certainly be a number of talented players who would be hoovered up by the very European sides we were attempting to usurp. There was a real chance that Pyunik would drop back into a familiar role, that of a little-known conveyor belt of talent for Russian and Ukrainian sides. That was not something that sat comfortably with me, but I hoped that whoever did follow in my footsteps would at least learn something from my methodology rather than ripping out the heart of the club.

Regardless of the possible consequences, I was content with my decision – there was no nagging feeling that I owed anybody anything, and could quite happily walk away on my own terms. I had wanted to come to a conclusion before the Champions League final, coming to a firm resolution before either the euphoria of victory or the bitter disappointment of defeat. I had never been one to let a single result affect my emotions too much, but I had also never experienced an occasion quite as big as the one we were about to either enjoy or endure. My mind was made up, and I could now focus entirely on the task at hand.

Whatever the result, I knew that what I had achieved was unlikely to ever be repeated – a club from one of Europe’s smallest, outlying nations reaching the biggest stage by only using players playing produced in their own country. I would leave a hero, walk away to the tune of a thousand requests for interviews and as many demands for an autobiography. There would be questions, accusations, misleading revelations from former players perhaps regretting never getting to play for Barcelona and indeed Manchester United. But my place in history would be secure, and it was with that knowledge secure that I had handed in my resignation to the Pyunik owners. It would be effective immediately after the final whistle in Berlin, and I was ready.

[EvilDave]

We’d been here before. Not specifically here, in the Olympiastadion, but in this very same situation – a European final against Manchester United. We knew their team, and they knew ours. We knew how they were likely to line up, and we had made no attempt to hide our trademark style of play from the Red Devils. I knew Mourinho, and he knew me. The only questions left to be resolved was whether or not we could go one better than last year and land a decisive blow.

Looking over my teamsheet before handing it to the match officials, I felt a sense of immense pride at what we had achieved. Of the 11 men taking to the field, seven of them had been brought up as young men and footballers in our very own academy, led of course by our talismanic star Poghosyan up front. At 31, he and right-back Nadiryan were the oldest men in our line-up, which contained five players aged 23 or younger. We had achieved that most desirable blend of youth and experience, with our blend mixing perfectly to earn a spot in the final.

In goal would be Karen Aslanyan, the 23-year-old who had taken charge between the sticks since his teenage years. Given that so much of our game involved striking on the counter, Aslanyan had perhaps more to do than most goalkeepers who had reached the showpiece final in the past, but his saves and quick distribution had been a significant contribution to our progress this far.

Our back four would no doubt be busy, but I was confident they were up to the job – just as they had been throughout our campaign. At right-back, Artur Nadiryan was one of the stalwarts of the club, and the only man aside from Poghosyan to be remaining from the previous regime. On the left, Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan was our record signing at the time of his arrival, and had played a crucial part in our rise since arriving from Banants. Between them, another ex-Banants man Mikhail Andreasyan would partner 22-year-old youth product Artur Adamyan, who was undoubtedly the finest defender in all of Armenia. With him at the heart of our defence, we had reason to be confident.

Our defensive shield would be comprised of two other long-serving squad members, both of whom were in their primes. Karen Toplakaltsyan, despite his propensity for a red card or two, got the nod ahead of Karen Hakobyan along Tigran Minasyan, whose penchant for a long-range strike or powerful free-kick had seen us grab goals when all other doors seemed to be closed. Their defensive abilities were second to none, and we would need them on top form going backwards and forwards if we were to win out against United.

On the wings came two of our danger men, both of whom epitomised my footballing philosophy of promoting our own youth and giving them a chance. Tigran Andreasyan had wrestled the right-wing spot from veteran Armen Putulyan after years of sharing duties, and his lightning pace and pinpoint crossing had created many a goal for our forwards. At 20 years old, he was a positive veteran compared to 18-year-old Artur Petrosyan on the left, who had burst into the team at the start of the season and offered speed and trickery in place of Denis Khugaev’s more measured creativity. To have one was fortunate, to have both was beyond the dreams of most teams.

Up front was real our real strength was to be found, with two players both alike enough to play together, and yet different enough to ensure that no side could apply the same principles to both men to keep them out the game. The younger of the two, at just 23, was Vahe Khachatrian, another youth product who had broken onto the scene a few years ago and displaced the more experienced men ahead of him with his combination of pace and finishing ability. He had been more prolific in the league than in Europe this season, but had the presence of mind to pop up with some crucial goals – we hoped he would do the same on this occasion.

That last our star, the man who bled Pyunik and who defined my era in charge of the club. A raw teenager when I had arrived, Hovhannes Poghosyan had quickly been thrust into the spotlight and had thrived, netting in the league at more than a goal a game for more than a decade and transferring those same skills to European competitions. He was the Champions League’s top scorer ahead of the final, and it was little surprise to those who saw him week by week. While his pace may have been on the wane, his instinctive sense of positioning, willingness to hassle and harry, and natural finishing ability made him a true great of the club. Those previewing the game suggested Poghosyan would be key if we were to come away with the trophy – and they were probably right.

[EvilDave]

This was it. The Champions League anthem blared out, Mourinho once again shook my hand, this time with a wry smile as if to acknowledge the repeat meeting, and Poghosyan knocked the ball back to Khachatrian to get the 2029 Champions League final underway. Manchester United were strong favourites, but we were not here by accident and would give as good as we got. As fans of many a European giant could testify, on our day we could beat any side on the continent, and those days were coming increasingly regularly.

Something I had hammered into my men was the importance of a strong start – it was an early blitz that had done for several of our opponents on our run to the final, and we felt that if there was ever a moment that United would be vulnerable, it would be in the early moments as they too began to soak in their surroundings and realise the magnitude of the game. They were far more use to the big occasions that we were, but every player can be affected by the big day, and we needed to take advantage – a Khachatrian snapshot wide of Unai Martinez’ left post inside five minutes was a useful warning shot. We could get after this team.

With United yet to assert themselves, we continued to push forward. Their ageing midfield partnership of Pogba and Martial possessed the technical ability to outplay Minasyan and Toplakaltsyan, but lacked the pace to get after them, and we took advantage. The latter moved away from the Frenchmen before feeding Khachatrian 25 yards from goal, and immediately the United defence converged on him to prevent the shot. What they didn’t prevent was a beautiful reverse ball to the wide open Poghosyan just inside the area, and our star striker finished with a first-time strike beneath the dive of Martinez at the near post. After 13 minutes, we led Manchester United in the Champions League final.

In the opposite dugout, Mourinho failed in hiding his fury, the 66-year-old clenching his fists as I ordered my men not to switch off. The cliché about being vulnerable immediately after scoring may have been disproved years ago, but my team had been on both ends of the incident enough times over the years to know it wasn’t worth the gamble. Rather than retreating into a defensive shell, we came forward again, and only a timely block from Moses Green denied Khachatrian the chance to test Martinez from the edge of the area. Not only were we winning, we were on top.

That wouldn’t last though, and while United were clearly not at their best, they were wise enough to know that even a few speculative efforts would be enough to have us worried. Pogba was the chief instigator, firing one over the bar from 30 yards, playing in Skutelis for a shot which Aslanyan was equal to, and then clipping a ball into the box which Rashford headed on target but with minimal power.

It did not long before United began to take charge of the midfield game, utilising the strength of their central pairing well by hassling our own double act at every opportunity. If their wingers came in off the flank and won the ball, either Pogba or Martial would be free to receive it. It was a risky ploy given our threat on the wings, but United’s wide men were not there primarily to defend anyway – Mourinho had enough faith in his full-backs to give the wingers a bit more freedom.

Five minutes before the interval, our opponents came closer than ever to getting back on terms. Marcus Rashford was the catalyst, beating Nadiryan for pace and clipping a ball to the back post with Aslanyan stranded across his goal. Skutelis jumped highest, getting his head on the ball, but pressure from Adamyan was enough to see our centre-back get enough of a deflection on the effort to send it behind for a corner. Swedish defender Daniel Martensson got to the dead ball, but Aslanyan was on hand once again, and at the break we held on to our 1-0 lead.

But not for long. After urging my men to go out and take hold of the match once again, we were undone by a fine piece of attacking play. Martensson collected a ball from Martinez and sprayed it forward to Martial in the centre. A deft turn allowed him past Toplakaltsyan and towards the edge of the box, where he chipped a pass over our defence towards the back post and the onrushing Rashford. Instead of shooting, the Englishman played it first time back into the six-yard box, where Skutelis reached it first to divert it beyond Aslanyan for the tying goal. It had taken just 10 minutes of the second half, and we had a real fight on our hands.

It was almost 2-1 midway through the half, a long-range effort from Lewis Cook – on to replace the tiring Pogba in the centre of the park, taking a deflection which wrongfooted Aslanyan and bounced just inches wide of the post. We managed a strike of our own moments later, substitute Khugaev sending in a daisy-cutter that the goalkeeper dealt with comfortably, but as we approached the closing stages we were firmly on the defensive as United’s shot count kept rising.

The count got as high as 31, but Aslanyan would not be beaten a second time, and so the final whistle blew with the Champions League final still locked at 1-1 between Pyunik and Manchester United. We were hanging on, but as long as we stayed level we had a chance. I had no desire to play for penalties, but we had 30 more minutes before we had to worry about that particular possibility. 30 more minutes to get out and claim the final piece of the Pyunik jigsaw.

[EvilDave]

The first period of extra time was dull at best, neither side prepared to lose the game. Poghosyan, struggling to go at full pace beyond the 90 minutes but too valuable to sacrifice, dribbled a shot into Martinez’ arms, Rashford fired wide on two occasions, but the only incident of note came with substitute midfielder Mark Robson’s booking for chopping down Minasyan.

That was an incident which would cause the game to flare up eight minutes into the second extra period, as Robson was penalised by the German referee for tripping Khugaev and subsequently shown his second yellow card. His team-mates protested vociferously, killing precious time in which for us to try and take advantage of our extra man, but in the end Mourinho’s defensive strategy was successful enough to make it to the end of the 120 minute mark. The Champions League final, the final match of my managerial career, would be decided from the penalty spot.

Poghosyan won the toss and chose to go first, handing the ball to left back Hovhannes Toplakaltsyan for the first kick of the shootout. As my men linked arms on the halfway line, our one-time record signing drilled a shot low to the goalkeeper’s left, only to see Martinez guess correctly and parry it away. Advantage United – until Rashford’s confident effort rebounded out off the outside of the right-hand post, leaving the score deadlocked.

Second for us was Khachatrian, the young forward showing great confidence in volunteering to take an early penalty. He stuttered in his run-up before sending his shot hard down the centre of the goal, but once again Martinez came up big for his side, his trailing leg deflecting the ball away. If Lars Skutelis could score we would be in deep trouble, but this time Aslanyan made himself our hero, leaping high to his left to claw away a goalbound penalty which few could fault. It was a truly remarkable save, and one which lifted the spirits of every man, woman and child in a Pyunik shirt.

The shootout still scoreless, up stepped Poghosyan for our third. If anyone had the nerves needed to net in such a high-pressure environment, it was our captain and talisman – and so it proved, Poghosyan sending Martinez the wrong way and rolling his penalty into the bottom right corner. Anthony Martial followed him with the pressure building, but the French veteran showed no signs of it, chipping a cheeky panenka down the middle after watching Aslanyan dive left. Still level after three.

Substitute winger Denis Khugaev was next, which in hindsight was a poor decision. Our left-sided creator sent his shot high over the crossbar, collapsing to the ground in agony after opening the door for Martensson to hand United the lead. However, the young Swede also buckled under the weight of expectation, sending his penalty dribbling into the grateful arms of Aslanyan low to his left. Glancing over at Mourinho, it was clear that neither of us were enjoying the experience, but it would surely be over soon.

Karen Hakobyan was fifth, and I thought back to the many times he had both won and cost us games in the past with the excellent and yet sometimes restless tackling. I feared as he walked to the spot, but my fears were unfounded, the penalty thumped down the middle and comfortably over the keeper’s trailing leg. That meant substitute Lewis Cook needed to score to keep the game alive, and breaths across the world were held as the English midfielder stepped up and struck his spot-kick.

[EvilDave]

With the top five of each side having taken their shots and only two for each side coming up trumps, sudden death did not promise to be a high-scoring affair. After Cook’s penalty crashed into the top corner, we were down to those men who were not confident enough to put themselves forward for the initial five – and in a cruel twist of fate, now ended up carrying far more pressure on their shoulders than their more self-sure team-mates.

Tigran Minasyan was our first man to go in sudden death, and despite looking horribly nervous on his way forward, produced a carbon copy of Poghosyan’s penalty to beat Martinez low down. Moses Green was the man who needed to match it for the Mancunians, and the Portuguese full back showed no sign of nerves by whipping his penalty beyond Aslanyan’s dive to the bottom left.

Next up, Karen Toplakaltsyan, who was out on his feet after 120 minutes of hassling and harassing, but was still prepared to go forward before some of his quieter team-mates. A slow trudge forward gave away his weariness, but his thunderous penalty into the top left corner did not, giving us a 4-3 advantage and heaping the pressure on centre-back Sunday Ofere. His stuttering run-up did nothing to fool Aslanyan, and as the ball left his foot I watched, heart in mouth, as our goalkeeper guessed correctly, getting his fingertips to the ball.

For a split second, time stood still. A moment later, Ofere sank to his knees, arms aloft in a mixture of relief and celebration. Aslanyan’s touch had sent the ball onto the post, but only the inside – he had been powerless to watch the weak but accurate shot trickle over the goal-line and come to a halt before even reaching the back of the net. It was a huge let-off for United, and Mourinho’s fist-pump let me know all about it.

Still the show went on, deep into the eighth round of kicks, and we sent forward Artur Adamyan for his turn. Our young centre-back had played a good game and had grown in confidence throughout, not allowing the goal to discourage himself. With a deserved swagger, he walked up to the spot, took four steps from the ball and then the same number forward, launching a rocket of a penalty straight off the right-hand post with Martinez beaten. It was a disaster, and the chance United needed to win.

Providing, of course, that Charlie Waldrum, another United substitute, could beat Aslanyan from 12 yards. The stadium descended into complete silence – it had been pretty close for some time – as the young Englishman stepped up to the mark, and sent Aslanyan left with a shot that went right. Well right. Waldrum missed the target by a good couple of yards, and remarkably there was still no winner to be found.

One centre-back had taken number eight for Pyunik, but a more conventional attacking player would be responsible for number nine. Tigran Andreasyan looked physically sick as he tottered forward, looking as if he might fall over at any moment, but covered up his feelings with a fierce shot towards the top left corner.

Which Martinez somehow parried away. It was reminiscent of Aslanyan’s save from Skutelis earlier in the shootout, a moment which now felt like decades ago. Instead of piling the pressure on winger Mark Grayson, the same man now had the chance to win the Champions League for his side and make himself a hero. All he had to do was outwit Aslanyan from the spot, and he did just that. Giving our goalkeeper the eyes and sending him right, he slotted his shot into the bottom left to break the hearts of a manager, a team, an entire nation, and indeed every neutral outside of Azerbaijan. We had had our chances, but failed to take them, and now young Grayson was carried round the pitch by his delirious team-mates. We had come so close, so very very close, but fallen short.

That was little consolation for my players, the majority of whom were in tears on the field as the United players celebrated. I had yet to tell them of my decision to leave – that would come in the dressing room – and so it was purely the weight of defeat crushing them as they knelt, sat and lay on the Olympiastadion turf. Even as their manager, there was nothing I could do nothing for them at this point. No words would bring healing, not immediately, and only time itself would banish the agony of untaken chances and missed penalties.

In that final team talk deep in the bowels of the Berlin stadium, there were more tears shed – by all involved. We had come so far together, achieved so much, and in defeat it would all come to an end. After giving one final press conference, I did not return to the airport to board the flight back to Yerevan with my old side. Instead, walking out of one of the Olympiastadion’s many alternative exits, I found myself alone in a foreign city, with nothing to do and nothing to achieve. I may have planned for my departure to be veiled in Champions League glory, but in defeat I had gained sudden anonymity. For a mind which had so long been driven in the pursuit of a single goal, it was a merciful rest indeed.
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That wraps up 'Minnows No More' - a disappointing end for Tigran and Pyunik but the ideal place to stop the story. By this point the domestic season was becoming a bit of a drag, and we were unlikely to get another draw of that sort to the final in Europe. Back-to-back finals, even ending in defeat, seems like a big achievement for an all-Armenian side, and the end seemed fitting. Thanks for reading along, for your comments and encouragement, and I hope to see you again soon for another EvilDave production...

[mark wilson27]

Thoroughly enjoyed this story Dave, its a shame you couldn't have been triumphant in your final but to get there is a brilliant achievement.

Will be looking forward to the next story mate