Shakhtar Donetsk have officially announced this week that they have completed the transfer of young midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan from the city’s rival club Metallurh, at a cost of 6 million euros (about $7.5 million).

The match in Yerevan will be followed by an away game against Macedonia on September 7.

Djorkaeff, a 42-year-old former French-Armenian player, said he has not received any official offer from Armenia’s Soccer Federation, “but if I were offered one day to be the coach of Armenia, I would think about it,” he said, according to the publication.

Despite the great enthusiasm displayed by the FC Mika players in front of the home crowd on Thursday, the Yerevan team failed to convert any of their numerous goal-scoring chances, drawing 0-0 against Macedonia’s FK Rabotnicki. The first leg of the tie played in Skopje last week brought a 1-0 victory to the Macedonians.

Titleholder Pyunik who have dominated Armenia’s domestic league in the past decade, have been defeated by FK Partizan (Belgrade) in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.

The home team lost a player red-carded by the match official seven minutes before half-time. In a game of equal opportunities, Rabotnicki managed to score in the 87th minute to take a slim advantage to the match in Yerevan due on July 22.

On their tenth appearance in the top European club competition Yerevan’s FC Pyunik, playing in Belgrade against local FK Partizan, conceded their first goal about half an hour into the match. Pyunik defender Artak Yedigaryan managed to put his team back on level terms a minute later, but two more Partizan goals scored in first-half stoppage time and about a quarter of an hour into the second period set the final score at 3-1 to the home team.

If final arrangements are made, Armenia (currently 95th on the latest FIFA rankings list of more than 200 nations) will host Israel (37th) in Yerevan on August 10 – in what will mark a rare friendly for the Armenians against a more or less highly ranked rival.

FC Banants and FC Ulis, both representing Yerevan, left the stage after suffering defeats from Anorthosis (Cyprus) and FC Bnei Yehuda (Israel), respectively.

But FC Banants and FC Ulis, both representing Yerevan and currently first and second in the Armenian Premier League standings, still retain chances of reversing course when they meet Anorthosis (Cyprus) and FC Bnei Yehuda ( Israel) again next week.