Yeghishe Melikyan: "We had to beat this team, but I'm confident we'll go through"

Pyunik head coach Yeghishe Melikyan commented on his team’s 0-1 defeat to San Marino’s Tre Fiori in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League first qualifying round. The match took place on July 10 in San Marino.

Yeghishe Melikyan at the press conference:
– It's very unpleasant, we had to beat this team. But I'm sure we’ll get what we want at home and go through. Today wasn’t our day, we were very unlucky. But I don't want to make excuses for such a performance. We accept the defeat and will analyze it. I’m confident we’ll win in Yerevan.

From experience, I know this was necessary for some players to gain experience and learn a lesson. I can’t say exactly what I mean, but it proves I was right. So let this be a lesson for us.

I can't say we underestimated the opponent. We missed a lot of goal-scoring chances early in the game. We could’ve won big, but it turned out the way it did. Many of our new players joined the training late and are not in optimal shape yet. For many, this was their first game in 2–3 months. The first official match always looks like this.

But again, I repeat — we must go through and we will.

We didn’t have players in good shape on the bench, so we couldn’t change the course of the match. We have good players, but they still need time to reach full form.

Matas Vareika was injured, just recently returned to training and wasn’t ready to play. I think we can give him a few minutes in the second leg. He’s an important player, but we won’t rush — he’s injury-prone and needs careful management.

Marius Noubissi joined just a week before the game and wasn’t ready to play. I didn’t plan to use him in the first leg but took the risk. Thankfully, he didn’t get injured.

I’m very grateful to the fans who traveled to San Marino. For them, we’ll do everything to win in Yerevan.

Usually, our first official games are difficult, but we improve afterwards. I think it will be the same this time.