Pyunik began the second round of the Armenian Premier League with a Yerevan derby against Urartu. It is worth recalling that in the away match against Urartu in the opening round of the current championship, our team were leading 2:0 but conceded twice in the closing minutes and, unfortunately, let the victory slip away.

This match was particularly significant for our head coach, Dmitry Gunko, who faced his former team for the first time since returning to Armenia. He had led Urartu to the Armenian Premier League title and Armenian Cup in the 2022/23 season.

The match got underway at a high tempo, with both teams showing plenty of determination in a game played under heavy rain.

During the first 30 minutes, both sides mainly threatened each other's goals with long-range efforts. Artak Dashyan and Witi tried their luck from distance for Pyunik, but neither managed to hit the target.

The visitors created their only dangerous opportunity near our goal before the break in the 38th minute. Following Khariton Ayvazyan's cross from the right flank, Edik Vardanyan got a slight touch on the ball and changed its direction, but Stanislav Buchnev was alert and dealt with the situation.

The second half offered more goal-scoring opportunities, most of which were created by Pyunik players.

In the 63rd minute, following Artak Dashyan's effort from a tight angle, the ball came off the far post. Shortly afterwards, Witi came close to scoring after a precise pass from James Santos, but his header went just over the crossbar.

Immediately after that, the James Santos–Witi combination worked once again, with the Mozambican forward firing a powerful shot into the Urartu net. However, the match referee, Ashot Ghaltakhchyan, disallowed the goal, ruling that our player had committed a foul against Khariton Ayvazyan in the build-up.

In the 76th minute, Pyunik had another excellent opportunity to break the deadlock. Sead Islamovic delivered a good ball into the Urartu penalty area, where Iman Griffith headed it towards Iasonas Pikis, who was in a promising position. However, Pikis failed to get a clean connection and missed a great opportunity.

Three minutes before the end of regular time, our players finally managed to score the winning goal. Following Hovhannes Harutyunyan's free-kick delivery, Urartu player Miguel Rajani cleared the ball with a header, but it fell to Mikhail Kovalenko inside the penalty area. The Russian defender made no mistake, sending the ball into the far corner with a first-time header to make it 1:0.

The Russian football player, who played his 150th anniversary match for Pyunik in the previous match and received a symbolic gift before this match, was able to "atone for his sin" with an important goal for the unjustified red card he received in the first round of the teams' match.

In added time, Pyunik had a chance to score a second goal following a quick counterattack, but Iasonas Pikis' shot struck the post.

Our team secured a hugely important 1:0 victory in the Yerevan derby and moved level on points with league leaders Noah, who are yet to play their match in this round.

Pyunik will play their next match on November 6, travelling to Charentsavan to face Van.