Fortune turns away from "Karabakh"

Baku/04.11.22/Turan: A draw in "Karabakh's home game against German "Freiburg" on November 3 kept the Azerbaijani club from qualifying for the Europa League playoffs.

"Karabakh", sitting in third place in the group, was content with advancing to the 1/16th tournament, the Conference League. A victory against Freiburg would have guaranteed "Karabakh's place in the Europa League playoffs.

"Karabakh" rushed to attack from the first minute and till the 10th minute the Germans were locked in front of their goal. Halfway through the first half one of "Freiburg"s rare counterattacks was rudely interrupted and the VAR system saw a penalty, although the offense was at the penalty line.

The unfortunate goal didn't put the hosts off and "Karabakh" continued their attacks.

The second half also began with the home team's attacks, one of which resulted in Marko Vešović being brought down inside the penalty box and the referee awarded an 11-meter penalty. However, the VAR system judged the "Karabakh" player to be offside.

A minute later, Vesovic still hit the "Freiburg" goal and the referee pointed to the center. But even this time, the VAR system found an offside position. The TV viewers were not shown who was offside, though.

All in all, the VAR system was very vigilant on the day in favor of the visitors and in the middle of the second half the red card was given to the "Karabakh" defender Kevin Medina.

With ten men left, "Karabakh" kept fighting and equalized the score on 90+1 minutes by Owusu. "Karabakh" had no more time and energy left.

Now "Karabakh", sitting third in the group, are heading to the 1/16 finals, where their potential opponents are "Fiorentina" (Italy), "Dnipro 1" (Ukraine), "Gent" (Belgium), "CFR" (Romania), "Basel" (Switzerland), "Anderlecht" (Belgium), "Lech" (Poland) and "Partizan" (Serbia).

The matches will take place in February next year. -06D-