Ufa beaten by Armenian champions

Ufa finished their second training camp with a 2-1 loss against Ararat Armenia on Tuesday. Lovro Bizjak equalised after half time after having fallen behind early on, before Ufa conceded the winner with nine minutes to go.

A pass back from Jemal Tabidze fell straight to Mailson Lima to finish a simple gift from six yards out past Aleksandr Belenov. Ionut Nedelcearu shouldered some of the blame for failing to communicate with his defensive partner.

Ten minutes after the break Bizjak just beat his marker to a ball across the box about 12 yards out, and was brought down. He took the penalty himself, and although his first effort was saved by the keeper he kept his head to roll the rebound into an unguarded net.

On 81 minutes though, Ararat pressure won possession back from Catalin Carp deep in FC Ufa’s half. Yuriy Shafinskiy blocked the initial shot, but couldn’t prevent Yusuf Otubanjo from threading the rebound in from outside the box.

Ufa head out to Spain for their final training camp on Saturday 16 February.

Ufa 1-2 Ararat Armenia
11 February, Larnaca, Cyprus
Goals: Bizjak (57’); Lima (8’), Otubanjo (81’)

Ufa: Belenov (Shafinksiy 71’), Sukhov (Emelyanov 68’), Tabidze (Putsko 46’), Nedelcearu (Nikitin 71’), Jokic, Aliev (Alikin 71’), Carp (Giogrobiani 90’), Golubev (Pozdnyakov 82’), Thill (Urunov 46’), Krotov (Sysuev 73’), Bizjak (Vombergar 58’)