Banants and Pyunik Erevan played out a 2:2 draw in the opening round of the Premier League on Saturday. The result leaves the hosts in seventh place with eight points after six games, while Pyunik remain third on fourteen points from the same number of matches.
I. Griffith opened the scoring early on, finding the net in the seventh minute. The home side held their advantage for most of the match, but Pyunik brought on Bruno Michel in the sixty-second minute and K. Ishibashi two minutes later, looking to shift the momentum. By then Banants had responded through G. Tarakhchyan, who levelled things in the sixty-ninth minute.
The turning point came late on. M. Kovalenko collected a yellow card in the ninety-first minute, then received a second and was sent off in the same moment. Pyunik had the game won inside twenty minutes, but Banants pulled one back through M. Mirzoyan in the ninety-third minute, and another goal followed four minutes later to salvage a point.
Both sides made changes through the second half. Banants brought on N. Aghasaryan for R. Darbinyan in the seventy-sixth minute, after the midfielder had already taken a yellow card. The home side substituted I. Griffith in the fifty-ninth minute, while Pyunik added James Santos in the seventy-second. The visitors also picked up an unnamed yellow card in the eighty-first minute.
There is not much to read into the table at this stage. Banants have won two, drawn two and lost two in their opening six fixtures, while Pyunik have unbeaten with four victories and two draws. The draw does not move either side dramatically, though Pyunik's record remains clean.