Pyunik Yerevan vs Dinamo Minsk

Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium is the venue as Pyunik Yerevan and Dinamo Minsk go head-to-head in the return leg of their evenly-poised Champions League qualifying tie.

No strangers to the knockout stage of a major European competition, Pyunik featured in the Europa Conference League proper as recently as 2022/23. Desperate to replicate that achievement on the grandest continental platform, the Yerevan outfit eked out a scoreless draw in the first leg, registering a fourth clean sheet straight in competitive action. But sharing the spoils in Minsk saw Pyunik relinquish an impressive six-match winning streak, marking their first scoring blank since the beginning of April. Another misfiring performance is seemingly off the table, not least as Yegishe Melikyan’s have bagged multiple goals in their last five home outings, averaging an intimidating three goals per game. Topically, four of the Pomegranate Color’s six most recent European games on home soil have seen them score at least twice.

Meanwhile, Dinamo Minsk’s pursuit of their first appearance in the group stage of a top European tournament since contesting the Europa League group phase in 2015/16 rests on ending a two-game winless European run on the road (D1, L1). Despite entering this ‘make or break’ contest as pre-match outsiders, Vadim Skripchenko’s men are well-positioned to upset the apple cart in Yerevan, having not lost any of their last ten competitive matches since a 2-0 defeat at domestic rivals Neman in early May (W8, D2). Six of those ten games saw Dinamo Minsk register a shutout, something they’ve failed to do on their last six continental travels. Adding to the visitors’ confidence, they’ve fired in 2+ goals in four consecutive away fixtures in the build-up to this trip at an average of 4.25 per match.