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YEREVAN, JULY 21, ARMENPRESS. TheUEFA Champions League ended for the Armenian football team, Pyunik, in the second qualifying round: Pyunik – Molde 1-0.
The match took place in the Republican Stadium named after Vazgen Sargsyan. Armenpress reports that Pyunik was not so active in the first half of the match and mainly carried out actions in the defensive line. The first half ended without scoring any goals. On the 74 minute of the second half Pyunik was able to break the match open. Zaven Badoyan stood out with his long-distance and sharp strike. However, Pyunik was not able to do anything about the match and it ended by Pyunik’s defeat to the Norwegian Molde with 1-5, leaving Pyunik out of the UEFA Champions League.
Football Club Pyunik is an Armenian professional football club based in Yerevan. It is one of the most popular football clubs in Armenia.
The club headquarters are located on Masis street 7, Yerevan. The Pyunik Training Centre is located in the Kentron District of Yerevan.
Founded in 1992 as Homenetmen Yerevan, the club won the first Armenian Premier League competition held in 1992 (shared with Shirak). In 1995, Homenetmen Yerevan was renamed FC Pyunik (Armenian for "Phoenix").
The new era of Pyunik began in 2001, when they absorbed the newly-promoted club FC Armenicum and automatically gained position in the Armenian Premier League without playing a single game in the lower leagues. The new owner of the club Ruben Hayrapetyan, took serious approach to develop the team bringing star players from other Armenian clubs. Pyunik had significantly improved after the arrival of foreign players from Mali, Cameroon, Argentina and later from Romania. Thus, Pyunik won the Armenian Premier League title the same year and the Armenian Cup in 2002. Later, for the first time in independent Armenian club history an Armenian club advanced to the second round in the Champions League. Afterwards, the club won the Armenian Premier League title ten times in a row.
In general, Pyunik have won a record 13 Armenian Championships, along with 7 Armenian Cup titles and 8 Armenian Supercups. The club is among the popular Armenian football clubs.