Image credit: Gevorg Ghazaryan
Western Armenia progressed to the final of the CONIFA Sportsbet.io European Football Cup after beating Abkhazia 3-0 on penalties.
Abkhazia opened the scoring against the run of play. Khugaev twisted and turned his way into the penalty area, before poking the ball beyond the goalkeeper to break the deadlock.
Western Armenia worked their way back into the game and won a controversial penalty midway through the first half. A Western Armenian forward was touched in the area and the contact was deemed enough to award a penalty.
Davit Manoyan stepped up and slotted the ball into the bottom corner to level the semi-final tie.
The second half was a tense affair, with Western Armenia failing to exploit the spaces in the Abkhazian defence when it mattered most.
Abkhazia’s chances were few and far between but they were willing to be patient for their opportunity. Their patience was nearly rewarded on 70 minutes when Pimpya cut in from the wing to force a fine save from the Western Armenian goalkeeper.
Both teams pushed for a late winner but the game went to penalties after 90 minutes.
Abkhazia missed all of their penalties whilst Western Armenia scored all three to earn a place in the final in front of thousands of fans to send the stadium into euphoria.
