January 28, 2022
The Azerbaijan Premier
League went into its mid-season break after the completion of round 14 on
December 16th, with the season scheduled to resume on Monday 7th
February. However, the clubs will be active before then, with the first legs of
the quarter finals of the Azerbaijan Cup being played the week before, with the
last 8 in that competition being the 8 sides in the Premier League.
These diaries have
previously covered some of the action in Azerbaijan during the 2021/22 season, with
an overview of the league, a match-by-match round-up of round 14, and then a
report on a game between FK Zira and Neftchi Baku. Despite a victory for Zira
that day, Neftchi recovered to go on to win the league for their first title
since 2012/13 after a final day 1-0 victory over Qarabag, thanks to a goal in
the 89th minute to overtake Qarabag and win the title by 2 points.
This ended Qarabag’s run of 7 consecutive titles.
Meanwhile, Zira had
looked secure in third place, but a run of just one win and 7 draws in their
last 11 games enabled Sumgayit to overtake them on the final day, and take the
final European place.
The 8 sides in the
division play each other four times for a 28 game competition, so the break
after 14 rounds is indeed half way through the season, something not that
common compared to the timing of winter breaks in other leagues !
So far Qarabag have
made a strong bid to regain their title, leading the table by 7 points at the
half-way stage, but their closest challengers are Gabala, who finished a poor 7th
in 2020/21. Champions Neftchi lay 11 points behind Qarabag in third place,
level on points with Zira but ahead on their head-to-head record. Sumgayit had
won only three matches, to be in a poor 7th place, a staggering 21
points of the leaders.
Club By Club Summary
Leaders Qarabag
FK were originally from Agdam in the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region but
haven’t played there since 1993 due to the conflict with Armenia, with Agdam
now being a ruined ghost town. They are now located in Baku.
Their started the
season with a 1-1 draw at Zira, and then they won their next three matches,
including a 2-1 victory at champions Neftchi before being held to a 1-1 draw at
Kesla. Their only defeat of the season came in round 8, surprisingly falling to
a 1-3 loss at bottom of the table Sabail. They bounced back with a 4-0 home win
over Neftchi, and the only dropped points for the rest of the year came in a
0-0 draw at Gabala ( which was goal-less despite Oscar winning performances
from keeper Mahammadaeliyou and Gabala’s Isganderov ! ). Qarabag finished the year with a 100%
home record from 7 games.
During the close
season Qarabag lost Mahir Emreil, last season’s joint top scorer, to Legia
Warsaw and fellow striker Ghanaian Owusu Kwabena left to join Turkish side
Ankaragucu. Senegalese forward Ibrahima Wadji was signed from Norwegian side
Haugesund for 600K Euros as a replacement.
However, their
outstanding player remains Croatian born, Azeri naturalized ex Spartak Moscow
and Hajduk Split midfielder Filip Ozobic, who has followed up his 18 goals last
season with 7 so far this time around. Ex-Hibernian French winger Abdellah
Zoubir has 6 goals to his credit, the same number as newly capped Azeri
international striker Musa Gurbanli, whilst Wadji has chipped in with 4 goals.
Qarabag have been
active in the transfer market during the winter break. Portuguese midfield
Leandro Andrade cost 250K Euros from Bulgarian side Cherno More, and they paid
out a reported 200K Euros for Azeri International striker Rustam Ahmadzada from
FK Minaj.
Gabala FK are the only side who play outside of the greater
Baku conurbation, being located 220km west of Baku, and have Tony Adams amongst
their former managers.
After a distant 7th
in 2020/21, they started the season with a 2-2 draw at champions Neftchi. Three
wins on the trot followed, and after a 0-0 draw at Sumgayit they were joint
leaders with Qarabag after 5 rounds. A 2-0 defeat at Qarabag saw them
relinquish the joint leadership, and another loss, 1-3 at home to Sabah so them
slip to third after 9 rounds. However, 11 points were taken from their final 5
matches at the end of the year, with the dropped points coming from draws with
Qarabag and Neftchi.
Striker Isganderov is
their leading goalscorer with 5 goals, whilst Albanian midfielder Isnik Alimi
has 4 to his name. Jordanian wing back Omar Hani was signed from APOEL Nicosia
and made 12 appearances. Brazilian winger Patrick has been signed on loan from
Austria Wien during the winter break.
Champions Neftchi
PFK have made a disappointing defence of their title so far. Matters were
not helping before the start of the season by losing Namik Alasakarov, the
league’s leading scorer with 19 goals, to Turkish side Bursaspor for a reported
50K Euros, and ex-Genk and Brest French winger Steeven Joseph-Monroe signed for
Greek side Xanthi. Japanese midfielder Keisuke Honda left to join Lithuanian
side FK Suduva and Guinean forward Mamadou Kane was sold to Olympiakos for 690K
Euros in late August, but loaned back to Neftchi for the rest of the season.
The only noteworthy signings were Paraguayan midfielder Cesar Meza Colli from
fellow Azeri side Kesla and ex-Pakhtakor Tashkent Brazilian Tiago Bezarra.
Despite this the
Oilmen actually started the season well, and after round 8 they jointly lead
the table with Qarabag, with their only defeat coming at home to Qarabag.
However, a 0-4 thumping in the return with Qarabag was then followed by
unexpected losses at Kesla ( 2-3 after taking a 2-0 lead ) and at home to Sabah
( 1-2 ), to leave Neftchi 9 points behind Qarabag. Although Sabail were
overcome in their next fixture, two more draws followed to end the year, 0-0 at
home to Sumgayit and 0-0 at Gabala. Tiago was the top scorer with 4 goals.
The winter break
activity has seen the signing of Croatian keeper Ivan Brkic from Latvian side
Riga FC and Brazilian forward Pato but the squad was further weakened by Argentine
winger Juan Correa leaving for Greek side Volos, Moroccan midfielder Sabir
Bougrine was sold to Esperance de Tunis for 450K Euros, and French midfielder
Romain Basque left for Chateauroux.
Nevertheless, captain
and International midfielder Emin Mahmudov ( 25 caps ) is rated the most
valuable player in the league by Transfermrkt with a value of 1.2M Euros.
Zira FK had a tough start to the season, with matches against
Qarabag and Neftchi albeit both at home, and took just one point from the 1-1
draw with Qarabag. However, they were unbeaten in their next 5 matches, before
suffering another 1-2 reverse to Neftchi. Ten points were taken from the next 4
matches to leave Zira in second place 5 points behind Qarabag after round 12,
but defeats in their final two matches ( Gabala 1-2 at home and Qarabag 2-0
away ) saw the title aspirations fade.
Georgian striker Davit
Volkov is the league’s top goal scorer with 10 goals and one interesting signed
was Belgian winger Loris Brogno from Beerschot, who featured in these diaries
in April !
Sabah FC were 5th last season, which is where they
are at the moment, but this doesn’t adequately describe their season so far.
After the first quarter of the season they had gathered just one point from 7
matches, which resulted in the sacking of coach Ramin Guliyev. Under new coach,
Russian Murad Musayev, the second quarter saw a dramatic turnaround where they
won 5 and drew one of their 7 games, with just a loss at Qarabag. The
highlights included victories at Gabala and Neftchi.
Ex-MVV and Alemania
Aachen winger Joy-Lance Mickels has 7 goals to his name, whilst midfielder
Aleksey Isayev has 4 goals. Keeper Aleksandr Nechaev has been signed in the
winter break from Rukh Brest.
Kesla FK are on course to repeat their 6th place
from last season. They started the season with 4 consecutive defeats before
unexpectedly opening their account with a draw with Qarabag, which was followed
up with victories over Sabah and Sabail. Only one win came in the next 5 games,
which was another unexpected result in beating Neftchi, before ending the year
with a convincing 3-1 win at Sumgayit.
Ex-New York Red Bull
Cameroonian International striker Anatole Abang is their top scorer with 4
goals together with ex-Maribor Brazilian winger Felipe Santos. Kesla have made
one interesting signing in the international break, Argentinian centre-back
Fernando Flores has been signed from Honduran side CD Real Espana, after
featuring in these diaries in December !
The season has so far
been a disaster for Sumgayit FK with just three wins after their third
placed finish last season. As a result coach Aykhan Abbasov was sacked during
the winter break, and replaced with Belarussian Aleksei Baha, who guided
Shakhtyor Soligorsk to the 2021 Belarus title, having previously won
Championships for Lithuanian side FK Zalgaris and BATE Borisov.
With naturalized
Iranian born striker Ali Ghorbani and naturalized Russian midfielder Rahim
Sadikhov, both now full Azeri internationals, Baha is not short of talent to
work with, and it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise if a few Belarussians
arrive at Sumgayit to play for Baha. Sumgayit have only scored 9 goals all
season, three of which came from Sadikhov, but Ghorbani has only found the net
once, and is bound to improve on that in the second half of the season.
Sabail FK won the wooden spoon in 2020/21 and look favourites
to repeat this again. They actually won two of their first three matches, at
Sabah and at home to Sumgayit, but the only subsequent victory was a huge 3-1
upset at home to Qarabag. Unfortunately, they were unable to follow this up,
and took only one point in their final 6 matches before the break. Experienced
South African midfielder Hendrick Eckstein left in August to return to South
Africa. Ex-Union St Gilloise Slovenian winger Nicolas Rajsel has scored twice
and Lithuanian International midfielder Domantas Simkus ( 30 caps ) was ever
present.
Attendances
After a season of
behind closed doors football, there have been no limitations of the crowds for
2021/22. The highest attendance was 3,300 for Neftchi vs Qarabag, with the next
best being 1,600 for Qarabag vs Gabala and 1,500 for Sabah vs Neftchi.
Neftchi have the best
average with 1,086, with Qarabag averaging 865 and Sabah with 857. Zira have
the lowest average with 421, whilst the league average was 794.
European Competition
Champions Neftchi
navigated the first qualifying round of the Champions League with home and away
2-1 victories over Dinamo Tbilisi, thanks to goals from Mahmudov and Alaskarov
in both matches. However, Greek Champions Olympiakos were too strong in the
second round, winning both ties 1-0. Dropping down to the Europa League,
Neftchi’s European campaign ended at the hands of HJK Helsinki, with a 0-3 loss
after a 2-2 home draw in the first leg.
Runners-Up Qarabag
caused a minor upset in eliminating Israeli side FC Ashdod in the second
qualifying round of the Europa Conference. After a 0-0 home draw in front of a
crowd of 8,231, Ozobic’s early goal in the return in Israel was enough to
secure progress. Their run continued against Cypriot side AEL Limassol, when
Kady’s 87th minute goal in front of 12,251 spectators gave Qarabag a
1-0 second leg victory after a 1-1 draw away from home.
Aberdeen were the
opposition in the play-off round, and after a narrow 1-0 home win, Qarabag
marched into the group stages with a comprehensive 3-1 victory in Scotland.
Even better was to follow in the Group stages, when Qarabag easily clinched
second place in their group to qualify to the knock-out rounds. Starting with a
0-0 home draw with FC Basel, a 4-1 in Cyprus over Omonia Nicosia and 2-1 wins
home and away over Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan secured qualification with two
games to spare. A subsequent 2-2 draw at home to Omonia and a 0-3 loss in Basel
prevented them from winning the group, and sent them into the last 32 rather
than the last 16, where they will face Marseille. All three of their group
matches were watched by crowds in excess of 17,000. Brazilian Kady was their
top scorer in the European campaign to-date with 4 goals and Frenchman Zoubir
had 3 goals.
Cup Winners Kesla
were eliminated in their only Europa Conference tie, losing both legs to Sochi
from Russia to go out 2-7 on aggregate. Sumgayit achieved a 0-0 in
Serbia against Cukaricki, but slumped 0-2 at home to exit the competition.
Azerbaijan Cup Quarter
Finals, First Leg
Tuesday February 1st,
2022
Qarabag vs Kesla
Neftchi Baku vs Sabah
Wednesday February 2nd,
2022
Zira FK vs Sabail
Sumgayit vs Gabala
Returns February 12th
& 13th
Round 15
Monday February 7,
2022
Kesla vs Zira
Neftchi Baku vs
Qarabag
Tuesday February 8,
2022
Sabah vs Gabala
Sabail vs Sumgayit
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