On January 28, at 18:00, Pyunik will hold its next friendly match against Khimki.
The football club from the Russian city of the same name was founded in 1997. The team has reached the final of the Russian Cup twice (2004/05 and 2019/20). In 2006, the club made its way to the strongest division of the country for the first time, but left it after three seasons. Khimki returned to the main Russian league in 2020 and finished the championship in the first half of the table. In the last two seasons, the club continues to play in the Premier League.
The team is headed by Spartak Gogniev. He was a bright player and, now, as a coach, he is distinguished by emotionality, strives to play spectacularly, use non-standard combinations and find his own style.
Pyunik and Khimki have players whose careers are connected with both teams. Winger David Davidyan, who belongs to a club near Moscow, plays for Yerevan on loan. And the Nigerian midfielder Joseph Oma Ada, who played for Pyunik in 2020, joined Khimki at this winter training camp.
In some seasons, Armenian football players played for the Moscow Region team. In 2015/16, Mikhail Markosov scored 13 goals for Khimki. Central striker Robert Zebelyan (2008/09) is among the top 20 most expensive newcomers of Khimki (16th place). And left midfielder Barseg Kirakosyan (2009/10) occupies the 15th position in the list of record sales. Since 2018, winger Arshak Koryan has been playing for the Moscow Region club, scoring 15 goals with 13 assists in 83 matches.
However, the main Armenian star of Khimki is Roman Berezovsky, the ex-captain of the ‘red and blacks’, who played 175 matches for the club. As a player of Khimki, he joined the ‘Lev Yashin Club’ (have 100 or more clean sheets in the Russian club). Roman Berezovsky was also the head coach of Pyunik in the past.
The most expensive football player of the current season of Khimki is Reziuan Mirzov, an ex-player of Spartak Moscow. The transfer value of the player reaches 1.2 million euros.
We are waiting for a decent game of both teams and believe in our victory!
