After concluding its run in the Conference League, Pyunik turned its focus to the Armenian Premier League, kicking off with a Yerevan derby against Urartu.

Compared to the previous match against Hungarian Debrecen, our team's head coach Artak Oseyan opted for a certain rotation, making 5 changes to the starting lineup. Instead of Henri Avagyan, Mikhail Kovalenko, Daniil Kulikov, Hovhannes Harutyunyan, and Iasonas Pikis, the field was taken by Stanislav Buchnev, Robert Darbinyan, Iman Griffith, Viti, and Momo Yansane.

It sould be noted that Stanislav Buchnev had last defended our team's goal in an official match on October 29 last year, in a 3-0 victory against Gandzasar in the Round of 16 of the Armenian Cup.

The match started very successfully for our team. As early as the 7th minute, capitalizing on a miscommunication among Urartu players, Iman Griffith received the ball, skillfully bypassed the opposing defenders, and calmly opened the scoring. This was the Dutch player's first goal for our team.

In the 17th minute, the hosts were close to scoring an equalizer, but fortunately, Stanislav Buchnev performed excellently following a powerful shot by Katsuyuki Ishibashi.

Our team responded in the 34th minute with a long-range shot by Viti, but in that episode, Urartu's goalkeeper Aleksandr Mishiev saved his team.

Minutes later, Momo Yansane could have found the net with another long-range strike, but his extremely dangerous shot went slightly over the bar; otherwise, Mishiev would have been powerless to save his team in that instance.

In the 41st minute, Urartu came very close to leveling the score when their newcomer Miguel Rajani aimed at the top right corner of our goal, and after his shot, only the post came to Pyunik's rescue.

In the second half, Hovhannes Harutyunyan, Gevorg Tarakhchyan, and Iasonas Pikis came on as substitutes for our team, and it was through their joint efforts that Pyunik managed to double its lead in the 69th minute. Pikis found Gevorg Tarakhchyan in the opponent's penalty area, and the latter, controlling the ball, made it 0-2 with a precise shot. Notably, Gevorg scored against his former team, whose academy graduate he is.

It seemed that Pyunik would start the championship with an important victory, but in the final minute of regular time, an incident occurred that largely predetermined the outcome of the match.

Mikhail Kovalenko received the ball in the center of the pitch and tried to move forward, but his progress was halted by a rough challenge from Urartu defender Erik Piloyan, which undoubtedly deserved a yellow card. However, surprisingly, the main referee of the match, Hovhannes Kalantaryan, did not award a free kick. In response, our player rightfully expressed his dissatisfaction. And when, during the very next stoppage, Mikhail Kovalenko was cautioned by the referee for his dissent, at that moment the Russian footballer committed an unnecessary act by applauding the referee, for which he immediately received a second yellow card and was sent off.

Naturally, all of this could not go without consequences, and Urartu was able to immediately exploit their numerical advantage. In the 3rd minute of added time, following a corner kick taken by the hosts, substitute Mikayel Mirzoyan reduced the deficit with a header (1-2). Just 1 minute later, the same Mirzoyan, breaking into our team's penalty box unchecked from the right side, managed to take a shot from close range, and the ball deflected off Nikolaos Kainourgios into our team's net. This was a cold shower for Pyunik, and unfortunately, our team let the victory slip out of its hands in the final seconds.

Thus, the Yerevan derby of the opening round of the championship had a dramatic denouement, resulting in a hard-fought 2-2 draw.