News - The Armenian national team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Portuguese national team.

Nare Petrosyan 2025-11-16 19:56:00 The Armenian national team suffered a crushing defeat to the Portugal national team. In the final round of the qualifying group for the 2026 World Cup, the Armenian national team, playing away, suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Portugal. The match on the opponent’s field ended 9-1. As in Yerevan, in Porto Portugal also started with their No. 1 from the very first minutes. Already in the 7th minute the Portuguese opened the scoring: after a free kick, Renato Veiga headed the ball into the net. In the 18th minute our players built a good attack, and as a result, after a pass from Hrant-Leon Ranosyan, our captain Eduard Spertsyan equalized. After the loose ball, the Portuguese increased the pressure: in the 28th minute, following a mistake by Arthur Serobyan in midfield, the ball ended up with Gonçalo Ramos, who went one-on-one against Henri Avagyan and pushed his team ahead again. Seconds later the hosts sent another ball into our goal without any difficulty — 3-1. Joao Neves stood out. Ten minutes later Neves scored his second goal — converting a penalty past Henri Avagyan’s guarded goal. At the end of the first half, Portugal earned a penalty, which Bruno Fernandes neatly converted. The teams went to the break with a 5-1 score. The second half did not differ much in main terms. In the 52nd minute Fernandes completed a brace by sending a sixth ball into our net. In the 72nd minute Fernandes converted another penalty and completed a hat-trick — 7-1. João Neves also completed a hat-trick. The game’s ending added time in the second minute saw Francisco Conceição close the scoring — 9-1. The teams’ previous meeting had also ended in a large victory for the Portuguese — in Yerevan, Armenia’s national team conceded five unanswered goals. In the European zone Group F, the Armenia national team remains last with 3 points. The standings are led by Portugal with 13 points, earning a ticket to the 2026 World Cup finals. In second place, the playoff ticket went to the Ireland national team, which in a concurrently played match grabbed a late victory over Hungary and rose to second place with 10 points. From the European zone, England, France and Croatia have also secured final tournament tickets. #mundial-2026 If you’ve found a typo, you can send it to us by selecting the typo and pressing CTRL+Enter