Wales will look to build on two wins in a row when they visit Armenia in Euro 2024 qualifying. The Dragons hope to exact revenge for a humiliating home loss to Armenia earlier. They pulled off a spectacular victory against group favorites Croatia last time out. Their hosts, however, are still alive.
Preview (Armenia vs. Wales)
With victories over relegation-plagued Latvia and, much more impressively, bronze medallists from the World Cup, Croatia, Wales made significant progress last month toward their third consecutive appearance in the European Championship finals. Harry Wilson’s brace helped Rob Page’s team win 2-1 on a memorable night in Cardiff. The Dragons can now advance straight to Germany in 2024 if they defeat Armenia and Turkey. It would be a significant accomplishment to make it to the fourth major tournament out of five. They are now tied for first place with their Croatian opponents. They do have a stronger head-to-head record, they will almost certainly finish in the top two.
In reality, if Wales defeats Armenia and Croatia and loses to Latvia this week. The latter result is quite unlikely—they will avoid a possible playoff and guarantee qualifying. It is now possible to spend another summer among Europe’s elite. They have not been in a Euro finals until 2016. This represents a dramatic turnaround in the team’s circumstances following two devastating qualification losses in June and a subpar showing at the World Cup the previous year. Some had even questioned Page’s future as national team manager after his side lost 4-2 to Armenia. He will now be eager to take advantage of his team’s recent momentum.
Armenia advanced into the running for their first-ever major finals berth during the summer. They shocked Wales with a volleyed opening from Lucas Zelaryan and won all three points. Grant-Leon Ranos also assisted himself to a brace. Zelaryan added another goal in the second half as a country placed 71 spots below its hosts in FIFA’s world rankings. This weekend in Yerevan, head coach Alexander Petrakov—who witnessed his Ukraine squad defeated by Wales in a World Cup playoff last year—will have to mastermind yet another historic outcome, as Armenia has now dropped two of their next four qualifying matches to lag significantly behind.
Team News
Quicksilver striker Brennan Johnson, missed October’s training camp because of a hamstring injury. He is back in the Wales squad after making his first-team debut for Tottenham Hotspur. But captain Aaron Ramsey is still not there, so Ben Davies, Johnson’s Spurs teammate, keeps the armband. In other news, Sunderland defender Niall Huggins and former England Under-21 international full-back Jay Dasilva have been called up by Rob Page for the first time, while Joe Morrell has returned to the team after serving a ban. In the rematch in June, Kieffer Moore, who was sent off for a confrontation off the field with Armenian goalkeeper Ognjen Cancarevic, will look to make amends if he is chosen to start at the head of the Welsh attack.
After making multiple changes in their previous friendly loss to North Macedonia, the hosts will inevitably go back to their strongest lineup. Drawing mostly from the large Armenian diaspora, Oleksandr Petrakov has again featured players like Lucas Zelarayan and Norberto Briasco, who were born in Argentina, along with defender André Calisir, who was born in Sweden, and Nigerian midfielder Ugochukwu Iwu.
With nine goals this season, Slovan Bratislava winger Tigran Barseghyan leads the Armenians in scoring. He ought to start in Zelarayan’s place up front. Wales at Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium will not take anything for granted. They are back in the running for automatic qualification. Although it will be difficult to match the heroics of last month against Croatia, the Dragons can still defeat their cunning opponents by the narrowest of margins.
Armenia 1 – 2 Wales
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