National football team head coach Vardan Minasyan on Tuesday summed up the results of the Euro-2012 qualifying campaign in which Armenia beat all expectations by finishing third in their strong group.

At a press conference Minasyan went further to state that his team showed the best football in the six-nation group that also included such well-established European sides as Russia, the Republic of Ireland and Slovakia. Still, he said, the national team is “in the middle of the road” and “has not yet become fully fledged.”

Minasyan, in particular, referred to the shortage of experience of major international football competition behind the 2-1 defeat in Dublin against the Irish team that dashed Armenia hopes for reaching the European Championship finals due in Poland and Ukraine next summer.

With five wins in the group, including two spectacular displays against Slovakia (a 3-1 win in Yerevan and a 4-0 victory in Zilina), Minasyan’s side needed a victory in Dublin to make it to playoffs, but independent observers say the highly controversial decision by a Spanish official to send Armenia veteran goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky off the pitch after only 26 minutes of play was a deadly blow that affected the outcome against Armenia. Still, the results shown by Armenia during the tournament played from September 2010 through 2011 have been hailed as a signal success for a nation whose victories in football pitches were very few and far between in the past.

Minasyan told media that he had already renewed his contract with the Armenian Football Federation and would continue to head the national team.

“It is a great honor and responsibility for me to be the head coach of the national team,” said Minasyan.

Speaking about the prospects of the national side, Minasyan said that the core of the team has already been formed and that the players have acquired a distinct style.

“Today the team has its own face. Its core is composed mainly of young players and they are bolstered by the experience of such veteran players as [goalkeeper] Roman Berezovsky and [defender] Sargis Hovsepyan. This team’s potential is greater and this good result is due to its good play,” said Minasyan, who also coaches FC Pyunik, Armenia’s reigning champion that has dominated domestic football for a decade until this year.

To ArmeniaNow’s question as to whether Pyunik’s underperformance in this season’s league where for the first time in a decade the team is unlikely to win the national title reflected his being mostly engaged with national team affairs, the coach said: “The average age of our team [Pyunik] is 17-18 years old. I’m very calm about this season. This is the year of the youths growing up. They are young and there is some instability. I’m very pleased with their performance. I think Ulysses deserves to become the champions this year, as they are more experienced and show stable play.”

The coach also said that he considers inviting to the main national team several players now playing in the U-21 and U-19 teams.

“Our compatriots playing abroad are also in the center of our attention,” said Minasyan, in particular, naming Roman Grigoryan now playing in Russia’s Krilya Sovetov among such footballers.

Armenia embarks on a World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign next September. The nation’s opponents in Group B are Italy, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Malta.