Russia beats Armenia 3:1
Russia beat Armenia 3:1 in the Euro 2012 qualifier held in St. Petersburg on Saturday.
Armenia's Brazilian midfielder Marcos Pizzelli opened the scoring for his team in the 25th minute, to raise hopes among his team footballers.
The Armenia joy lasted for only a minute as Russia's striker Roman Pavlyuchenko struck back to equalize the score. The second half of the tense qualifier at Petrovsky Stadium attended by scores of ardent fans from Armenia brought more success to the host team as Pavlyuchenko twice found the back of former Zenith St. Petersburg goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky's net. A hat-trick from Pavlyuchenko gave Russia a 3-1 comeback win over Armenia.
In the 85th minute, Armenia's midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan did head the ball home towards the end of the game, but the effort was overruled by the French official after the linesman put the flag up for an offside position.
Lineups:
Russia: Igor Akinfeev, Vasily Berezutsky, Alexander Anyukov, Sergei Ignashevich, Yuri Zhirkov, Igor Semshov, Igor Denisov, Konstantin Zyryanov, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Andrei Arshavin, Dmitri Toprbinskiy.
Armenia: Roman Berezovsky, Levon Hayrapetyan, Sargis Hovsepyan, Robert Arzumanyan, Karlen Mkrtchyan, Marcos Pizzelli, Gevorg Ghazaryan, Yura Movsisyan, Hrayr Mkoyan, Henrik Mkhitaryan, Levon Pachajyan.
