FC Karabakh Defeats FC APOEL

Baku / 08/08/19 / Turan: FC Karabakh from Agdam defeated FC APOEL in Nicosia with a score of 2: 1 in the first match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League on the evening of August 6.

The first real scoring opportunity in the match was created by the guests. In the 8th minute, Mahir Amrali intercepting the ball after an opponent error in his half of the field brought Abdellah Zubir to a favorable position. However, the latter did not immediately strike and tried to pass an opponent first, and as a result the blow was not strong and the goalkeeper of APOEL repelled it.

At the 24th minute, the captain of FC Karabakh Rashad Sadigov and the team's goalkeeper Wagner did not understand each other and almost a self-goal was recorded.

At the end of the first half, the guests attacked more, but they did not create scoring chances.

The FC APOEL attack began the second half of the game.

At the 50th minute, Thomas de Vincenti dangerously implemented the standard almost from the penalty area. The goalkeeper of FC Karabakh literally touched the ball heading under the crossbar with his fingertips.

At the 54th minute, during a high-speed counterattack of FC Karabakh, Mahir Amrali came face to face with the goalkeeper, and shot accurately.

At the 70th minute, having demonstrated virtuoso dribbling in the penalty area, Abdella Zubir brought Magaye Geye who had just come from the reserve to a good position and he doubled the score.

After that, FC Karabakh had a few more scoring chances, but did not use them.

The Cypriot team managed to return a goal at the end of the game. So, in the last added minute (90 + 5) Giorgos Merkis closed the mounted pass from the corner with his head.

It should be noted that despite the victory, serious shortcomings were noticeable in FC Karabakh's game. Players of the team were not accurate in their passes, and they were slow in taking the ball out of the danger zone. Simeon Slavchev obviously dropped out of the game. There was a lot of inaccuracy in the passes by Richard Almeida. Rashad Sadigov made serious mistakes. Mitchell didn't look very good. Abdella Zubir was trying hard, but sometimes he was fond of individual game and often kept the ball at himself too much.

On the positive side, Mahir Amrali, the rookie of FC Karabakh Jaime Romero, Maxim Medvedev and Raeel Mammadov can be noted.

The return match will be held in Baku on August 13.

It is hoped that the shortcomings in the team's game will be eliminated. Indeed, in case of reaching the playoffs, and the likelihood of this is high, FC Karabakh will most likely have to play with FC Ajax, which in the first match of the 3rd round played in a draw 2: 2 with the Greek FC PAOK in a guest game. In order to adequately confront the European football grandee, FC Karabakh has to seriously add to its game.

Another Azerbaijani club also continues to fight in European competitions - it is Baku-based FC Neftchi. On August 8, the Azerbaijani team in the first match of the third qualifying round will play with the Israeli Bnei Yehuda in Israel.

FC Neftchi in this cycle pleases its fans with confident victories. So, in the first and second qualifying rounds of the Europa League FC Neftchi defeated the Moldavian FC Speranza (3: 0, 6: 0) and the Russian FC Arsenal from Tula (1: 0, 3: 0), respectively. These victories inspire hope in overcoming also the third round and the team"s entry into the playoffs of the Europa League. -06D--