February 25, 2021
In mid-January these diaries reviewed the 14th round of fixtures in the Azerbaijan Premier League following its resumption after the mid-season break. Since then, two more rounds of fixtures had been completed and Neftchi had established a three point lead over Qarabag at the top of the table. This was in part due to an eventful 2-1 win at Qarabag ( revenge for a 0-6 home drubbing early in the season ), in which they finished with 8 players and Qarabag were down to 10 men. Qarabag then dropped more points in a hard fought 0-0 draw at 4th placed Sumqayit whilst Neftchi edged past Qabala 1-0 thanks to a goal in the 94th minute.
In the meantime, Zira have remained in third following two 2-2 draws with the bottom two sides in the League, at home to Sabah and away to Kesla. As a result they had slipped to 8 points behind Neftchi.
As previously noted, Zira is part of the Baku municipality to the east of the city centre and its club play at the 1,200 capacity Zira Olympic Sports Complex. They now had a respectable 3-4-1 home record, and were victorious in the previous home league encounter with Neftci ( 1-0 ) in October, thanks to a goal in added on time by Georgian striker Davit Volkov. The two sides also met in the Azerbaijan Cup Quarter Final in early February and Zira were 1-0 winners on aggregate, after a win at Neftchi and a goal-less draw at home in the return. With the league match at Neftchi in late November also being a 0-0 draw, Zira were unbeaten in 4 matches against Neftchi this season without conceding a goal.
Zira made 2 changes from last week with Serbian centre-back Lazar Dordevic and midfielder Hajiagha Hajili, on loan from Qarabag, coming into the starting XI.
The starting line-up included Brazilian keeper Matheus Albino, Serbian centre-back Nemanja Andelkovic and Brazilian midfielder Richard Alemeida, who took Azeri citizenship and has won 22 caps for his adopted country.
Midfielder Elvin Jamalov has one cap and captain Aghabala Ramazonov ( 18 caps ) has scored 5 times this season, Volkov has found the net 7 times, whilst Mozambique forward Clesio ( 31 caps ), a substitute today, also had 5 goals
Ex-Leicester, Barnet, Cambridge United and Colchester Sierra Leone defender Alie Sesay ( 8 caps ) signed for fellow Azeri side Sabail two weeks ago.
Neftci are also from Baku and play most of their matches in the 11,000 capacity Bakcell Arena. As fitting for a side at the top of the league, the Oil Workers possessed a 6-1-1 away record.
Their line-up today had three changes from the goalless draw at Sumqayit last week, Ukrainian born defender but now an Azeri citizen Anton Krivotsyuk ( 11 caps for Azerbaijan ), Guinea midfielder Mamdou Kane and Bulgarian forward Ahmed Ahmedov all coming into the side.
The starting line-up also included Senegalese centre-back Mamadou Mbodj, Serbian defender Vojislav Stankovic ( 1 cap ), Brazilian wing-back Thallyson and ex-Genk & Brest French forward Steeven Joseph-Monrose. International attacking midfielder Namik Alasgorov ( 20 caps ) was their top scorer with 10 goals.
Albanian midfielder Bruno Telushi and ex-Lierse Moroccan striker Sabir Bougrine were on the bench.
After a freezing morning, temperatures were expected to touch 3 degrees at the 4pm kick-off local time ( noon UK ) with the forecast being dry and cloudy. However, significant amounts of snow were visible by the side of the pitch, presumably having been cleared from the pitch, and the lines on the pitch appeared to be yellow rather than white !
Despite Zira’s record this season against Neftchi, Bet365 had the visitors favourites to win at 13/10, with Zira at 7/4. Despite the closeness of their previous league and cup encounters, the draw was the long-shot at 12/5.
Zira wore their usual sky blue shirts with dark blue shorts, whilst Turkish Airlines sponsored Neftchi were in all white.
Matches from the Azerbaijan Premier have recently started to be streamed live on the Az PFL YouTube channel, with all 4 of today’s matches available to watch. Unfortunately, the pictures for this game were repeatedly stuck, making the game virtually impossible to watch, and the stream stopped altogether just before half-time. However, the gremlins were addressed at half-time, with the quality of stream being fine in the second half, even if a lot of the football wasn’t exciting !
The highlights package of the match shows that we didn’t miss too much action in the first half, with the two best chances falling to Neftchi. Midway through the half Ahmedov volleyed just wide after starting a move with a probing run, and in the 32nd minute Mbodj saw his delicate flicked header from a corner headed off the line by Almeida. Zira’s only response was Aliyev’s fierce shot over the bar.
The first chance of the second half also fell to the Bulgarian Ahmedov. His weak header should have been meat and drink for the Zira keeper, but Matheus fumbled dreadfully. However, as Ahmedov was preparing to bury the chance, the keeper bravely dived at the striker’s feet and succeeded in deflecting the shot over the bar to redeem himself. In the 56th minute Ahmedov attempted a spectacular overhead kick, but only succeeded in sending his effort harmlessly wide.
Two minutes later Alasgorov ran from half-way, and with Ahmedov’s decoy run distracting the covering defenders, he was able to run inside the Zira penalty area, but his shot was too close to Matheus, who made a good block.
Zira continued to be content to contain and pass the ball around neatly in their own half, with their only offensive response being the chunky Aliyev sending a tame shot from the left straight at Mammadov for an easy save.
The pivotal moment of the game came in the 66th minute. Almeida delivered a high looping cross from the left close to the half-way which enabled Volkov to run behind the square back line of 5 Neftchi defenders. Controlling the ball on his chest, Volkov ran into the penalty area to smartly finish left footed between the keeper and the near post to give Zira the lead
Neftchi failed to respond to going behind, with Zira content to let them have possession and challenging Neftchi to break down their well organised defence, or to shoot from long distance. The occasional counter attack from Volkov stopped the Neftchi defenders from taking any liberties. It was more like a game of chess and Baku born Gary Kasparov would have been proud of the play from Zira !
Despite the ticking clock, Neftchi continued to try and pass their way through the massed defence and there seemed to be little urgency in their approach play. It didn’t feel likely that they would be able to manufacture an equaliser, especially as they started to give away a lot of fouls, helping Zira slow down the game. Keeper Matheus was hardly inconvenienced, forced into only having to catch a couple of poor crosses, gather a weak header from Abbasov and make one punch under pressure. Neftchi centre-back Krivotsyuk was pushed up as an additional forward in the closing stages but this had little impact.
The nearest Neftchi got to creating any danger was in added on time when Monrose’s attempted cross hit Zira defender Taskin from close range. With the defender’s arm in a natural position by his chest, and being impossible to get out of the way of the cross, the referee correctly waived play on. Indeed, there was very little in the way of protests from the Neftchi players.
It wasn’the most exciting match to watch, but there was a lot of good technical skill and passing along the floor. Perhaps one for the purist !
Zira extended their run to 5 matches unbeaten against Neftchi this season and still to concede a goal against them. They clearly have found the magic formula on how to play against them.
Qarabag took advantage of Neftchi’s slip to share the leadership of the league after 1-0 victory at home to Sabail, but Neftchi remained top by curtesy of their better head to head record. Zira closed the gap to top to 5 points.
Zira FK : Matheus – Taskin, Andelkovic, Djordjevic – Muradov, Hacili, Almeida ( Rahimov ), Jamalov, Aliyev – Ramazanov ( Clesio ), Volkov ( Quarbani ),
Neftchi Baku PFK : Mammadov – Mbodj ( Abbasov ), Stankovic, Krivotsyuk – Muradbeyli ( Lawal ) Makhmudov, Kane, Thallyson - Alasgorov, Monrose, Ahmedov ( Bougrine )
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YqbGpAFE98
No comments:
Post a Comment