{"id":14343,"date":"2026-07-20T11:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/?p=14343"},"modified":"2026-07-20T12:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:02:29","slug":"wrexham-v-fc-pyunik-all-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/news\/wrexham-v-fc-pyunik-all-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrexham v FC Pyunik: All you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Wrexham take on FC Pyunik of Armenia in the UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League first qualifying round semi-final on Wednesday 22 July (KO 19:00). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Racecourse will host the historic encounter, as well as the other semi-final in Group 3 earlier in the day \u2013 between Glentoran of Northern Ireland and Riga FC of Latvia (KO 13:00). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winners of the two ties will meet in Saturday\u2019s final, with the victor of that clash progressing to the second qualifying round. The losers of both semi-finals will meet in the third-place play-off, also on Saturday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s tie will be the latest chapter in Wrexham\u2019s rapid rise, with the Red Dragons only promoted to the Genero Adran Premier three years ago. After achieving back-to-back top four finishes in the top-flight, the appointment of Jenny Sugarman as manager last summer took the club to even greater heights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Dragons won their first piece of major silverware by defeating Cardiff City on penalties in the Genero Adran Trophy Final in February, before ending the Bluebirds\u2019 three-year grip on the Genero Adran Premier title \u2013 sealing top spot with a scintillating 4-1 victory over Iain Darbyshire\u2019s side at The Racecourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wrexham claimed the Genero Adran Premier title for the first time last season<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now a UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League debut awaits, with Wrexham only the second women\u2019s side from north Wales to compete in Europe following Bangor City in 2002\/03. It is seven years since any Genero Adran Premier team earned a victory in Europe, while the last Welsh club to even score in continental competition were Swansea City in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been a busy summer in the transfer window for Wrexham, with five new faces through the door so far. Mikayla Cook is a statement arrival from Cardiff City, who she has played for in the Champions League in each of the last three seasons, while Jamaican international Natasha Thomas comes in after 11 years at Ipswich Town where she became the club\u2019s record appearance maker and all-time top scorer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New goalkeeper Lucy Farrell, who was called up to the Cymru senior squad in April, provides competition for Liz Craven between the sticks, while Lydia Sallaway, on loan from Aston Villa, and former Cymru U19 international Bella Reidford have further bolstered Sugarman\u2019s squad over the last week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As ever, Katie Barker will be one to watch in attack. The former Newcastle United forward, who has taken the number nine shirt at Wrexham this summer following Rosie Hughes\u2019 departure, netted 29 goals in 27 appearances during her debut season in north Wales. Captain Jodie Bartle and Canadian defender Sarah Harvey both have previous experience in the Champions League from spells at Celtic and FC Samegrelo respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Katie Barker will aim to build on her superb debut season in north Wales<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Champions League is the pinnacle of club football,\u201d Sugarman said after the draw last month<\/a>. \u201cWithout a doubt, this is something that gives me immense pride and I\u2019m excited to test myself as a head coach in a different competition.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Adran Premier was a new experience for me, so to be able to follow that up with this is incredible. It\u2019s also about us as individuals within all this and enjoying the opportunity that we\u2019ve got.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also about how we represent the Club, the town, our fans, but also the rest of Wales. This might be a first time for us, but it isn\u2019t a first time for Welsh teams. We want to make sure we represent the country and make sure we showcase the best of women\u2019s football here in Wales.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s opponents FC Pyunik were crowned champions of Armenia for the third consecutive season in 2025\/26, after winning all 18 of their league matches while scoring 107 goals and conceding just eight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ani Ghukasyan (R) is one of a number of players in Pyunik’s squad capped by Armenia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They also recorded their first-ever win in the UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League last year with a 1-0 victory over Bulgaria\u2019s NSA Sofia in the first qualifying round semi-final, before falling to North Macedonian side Ljuboten in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyunik\u2019s team is almost exclusively made up of Armenian natives, with four players called up to the country\u2019s squad for friendlies against Kazakhstan and Belarus in June. Chief among them is Veronika Asatryan, who scored 27 league goals last season and also netted the winner in her side\u2019s maiden Champions League victory 12 months ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luiza Ghazaryan (23 goals last season) and Ani Karapetyan (20 goals last season) are also key names to look out for, but Pyunik did suffer a blow last week as 19-year-old prospect and Armenian international Tatev Khachatryan completed a move to Montenegrin champions \u017dFK Budu\u0107nost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Buy tickets here<\/a>

Wrexham v FC Pyunik<\/h2>

Wednesday 22 July, 19:00. The Racecourse. <\/p>

Buy tickets here<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wrexham take on FC Pyunik of Armenia in the UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League first qualifying round semi-final on Wednesday 22 July (KO 19:00).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":13595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ftr_img_focal":{"x":0.56,"y":0.33},"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,154],"class_list":["post-14343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-football","category-adran-premier"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14343"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14363,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343\/revisions\/14363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}