NEWS.am Sport exclusive: Armenian passions in Mainz

By Vera Martirosyan

On June 6 Armenia will play a friendly match against Germany, the final warm-up match for Germany before the World Cup. Germany will leave to Brazil, and we will watch World Cup on TV.

No one has great expectations from a friendly, but it is Germany, one of the favorites of the World Cup and one of the strongest national teams in the world. 

Mainz is an old and calm city with a population of 200,000. Armenian fans found accommodation in Frankfurt and are traveling to Mainz by train.

The locals are looking forward to the match, as it is the first time German national squad will play here.
Almost all tickets have been sold, the remaining cost 200 euros. In addition to 30 fans coming from Armenia, the match will be attended by representatives of local Armenian community.

The Germans say they preferred to play against Armenia as they play a similar counter-attacking style to Portugal, Germany's first opponents in Brazil.

In Germany, they know almost nothing about Armenia. Mkhitaryan is an exception. One German journalist asked me how to pronounce his name. They tried to correctly pronounce the names of other players, that made me think they are lucky that Mkrtchyan is not here.

Bookmakers and experts do not believe in the victory of Armenian team. But taking into account that the Armenians play well against strong teams, and we add to this the German practice of Mkhitaryan, we can expect good result.