The profile of the potential rivals of Mars: Gazarian’s… 6-year-old Ararat and the inexperienced Egnatia

Their profile potential opponents of Mars in his 2nd qualifying round European Conference League.

The “yellows” will find on their way either Ararat or else they must cross… Egnatia Street and the sport-fm.gr introduces you to the two groups. On the one hand, there are the Armenians, who have only been founded in 2017, while the Albanian club was created in 1934, but has a very poor presence at the top level of the country, while it has not competed in Europe again.

Ararat

What did he do this season?

Finished 3rd in the Armenian league in the 2022-23 season, picking up seven points behind leaders Urartu and four behind 2nd placed Punic Yerevan, with 23 wins, 7 draws and 6 losses. Somehow, she failed to reach the title, which would have been the 3rd in her history, since she has two championships (2018-19, 2019-20), while it has reached the Cup final once (2019-20). He also played last summer in the Europa Conference League qualifiers, making a brief appearance as he participated in the 2nd qualifying round and was eliminated on penalties by Paed of Estonia.

The coach

Ararat now has a new coach at its helm, as Vardan Minasyan took over in mid-June, who is the 10th coach in its history. He replaced Vardan Bikakhkian, who was at the helm for a year, leading them to 3rd place in the league. The 49-year-old technician has been working professionally as a head coach since 2008. His biggest accolade is that he has been on the bench of the Armenian national team twice (2009-13, 2018) and once as an assistant (2006-09).

Star

It is difficult to distinguish any football player from its roster, since to a large extent it has players who have basically only played in Armenia, while they are of low market value. The most expensive based on Transfermarkt, there are two and cost 350 thousand euros. Colombian stopper Perez and midfielder Lima, who has roots in the Netherlands and Cape Verde. Gevorg is also on her roster Ghazarian. This is the former midfielder of Olympiakos (2014-15), Corfu (2015) and Corfu (2021). He made only 7 appearances with the “red and whites” and 8 with the islanders, scoring 1 goal, while he also made 7 with the Fthiots.

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Egnatia

What did he do this season?

She lifted her first Cup and finished in 3rd place of the Albanian championship, but found themselves far from the top, as they collected 15 points less than champions Partizani and runners-up Tirana. He had 14 wins, 10 draws, and 12 losses. It may have 89 years of history (compared to Ararat’s only 6), but this is its maiden presence in Europe. This makes sense, as it won promotion to the top flight in the summer of 2004, but was relegated straight away and returns to… showrooms in May 2021.

Coach

The 40-year-old Edlir Tetova, who was previously its sports director, has been on its bench since last January. However, he is not completely new to the team, having been their manager at the start of the season for 10 games. He has also been at the helm of domestic Ulpiana and Lusnia in 22 and 4 matches respectively. It is easy to see that he has no European experience.

Star

Not even from Egnatia can we single out any group. It has basically native footballers, with experience from the domestic league, who have not played in European competitions. The most expensive footballers are the Brazilian midfielder Medeiros and the Ghanaian forward Douamena, both costing 400 thousand.