February 13, 2024
These diaries last took a look at the Azerbaijan Premier League back in February 2022, with a review of round 16 of the 2021/22 season. That weekend Zira beat Sabah 2-0 after two goals from ex-Botosani French striker Hamidou Keyta. Keyta is now playing for current Azeri champions Qarabag.
Sumqayit’s game against Qarabaq had been postponed due to Qarabaq’s European commitments, and at the end of the season Zira finished third and Sumqayit 7th in what was at the time an eight team division.
The Premier League now consists on 10 sides, who play each other 4 times for a 36 game season, and today’s match was part of round 22. This was a meeting between 4th and 2nd in the table. Sumqayit were a distant 16 points behind runaway leaders and defending champions Qarabag, with Zira a further three points adrift.
Teams are still permitted to have 7 foreigners on the pitch at any time in the Premier League.
Zira
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. Their nickname is The Eagles.
Zira have once previously had a match featured in these diaries when they beat Neftchi Baku 1-0 in February 2021. Despite the loss that day, Neftchi went on to win the league, the only time in the past 10 season when Qarabag have not been the winners.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/02/zira-fk-1-0-neftchi-baku-pfk-att-0.html
Amongst the players to have been mentioned in despatches in the diaries, Georgian striker Davit Volkovi is now with Sabah as is midfielder Elvin Jamalov. Mozambique striker Clesio is currently at Gabala whilst Aghabala Ramazonov plays for Sabail.
Zira started the day with an 8-7-6 record but had scored just 14 goals in 21 matches and conceded a miserly 12. They started the season very well and they were top of the table after round 13 having lost just two matches. However, they were now on a run of 8 games with a win and had gone 7 games without scoring a goal until a 1-1 draw last time out at back-markers Gabala. During this run though, they won three matches in the Azerbaijan Cup to reach the semi-finals, where they will again meet Gabala.
Portuguese keeper Tiago Silva had kept 10 clean sheets this season, the best in the league, and captain and right back Qismat Aliyev ( 7 caps ) was their top scorer with just 4 goals, and two of those were penalties.
The foreigners in the Zira squad today, in addition to Tiago Silva, were Ivorian centre back Stephane Acka, who has played for both Craiova sides in Romania, Ukrainian midfielder Eldar Kuliyev, ex-Gabala Brazilian forward Raphael Utzig, ex-Austria Wien Brazilian centre-back Ruan Renan, ex Perugia and Lokomotiv Plovdiv Ivorian defensive midfielder Pierre Zebli, Guinean winger Salifou Soumah and ex-Arouca Nigerian midfielder Abbas Ibrahim.
The most notable Azeri international was naturalised Russian born attacking midfielder Radim Sadykhov ( 9 caps ) whilst Ismayil Ibrahimili, on loan from Qarabag had won 8 caps.
Sumqayit
Sumqayit is the third largest city in Azerbaijan, located on the Caspian Sea 36km north of Baku. Its side play at the recently opened 10,000 capacity Sumqayit City Stadium. They are known as The Chemists.
When they were last featured in 2022 the coach was Belarussian Alekshey Baga and their key players were Iranian born striker Ali Ghorbani and Russian born midfielder Radim Sadykhov, both of whom had become naturalised Azerbaijan citizens and played for the national team. Baga subsequently returned home to win a league title with Shakhtyor Donetsk and is now coach of Russian Second Division Side Sokol Saratov. Ghorbani is now back in Iran with Foolad, whilst Sadykhov is ironically at Zira ( see above ).
Sumqayit went into today’s match with a 9-7-5 record and were unbeaten in their last 5 matches. However, despite being second in the table they had a negative goal difference, mostly due to heavy defeats at the hands of Qarabag ( 1-6 at home and 0-5 away ). They had only scored 23 goals in 21 games, with ex-Austria Wien Israeli striker Roi Kehat being the top scorer with 5. Together with Zira’s scoring record, a high scoring game today seemed unlikely !
Sumaqyit’s squad for the game included Pakistan centre-back Easah Suliman ( 7 caps ) who represented England at all age groups from 16 to 20 and was the first British Asian to captain an England team. He also played for Aston Villa, Cheltenham, Grimsby and Vitoria Guimares before moving to Azerbaijan.
The striking partner for Kehat was Chad international Ninga ( 29 caps ), who had played for French sides Montpellier, Caen and Angers, whilst ex-Flora Estonian forward Erik Sorga ( 25 caps ) was on the bench.
Midfielder Abod Disso was Ivorian, whilst Tresor Mossi had won 2 caps for Burundi, and Masaka Murata was Japanese.
Ex-Zira keeper Mekhti Dzhentov had represented Azerbaijan once, as had defender Muras Khachayev. Midfielder Elvin Badalov had 8 caps.
Matchday Information
The weather at the 17.15 local time ( 13.15 UK ) was cloudy and around 16 degrees.
Zira were in their usual light blue shirts with black shorts, whilst Sumqayit were wearing purple shirts with white shorts.
The match was live streamed on the AzPFL YouTube channel with a commentary in Azeri but the match was occasionally interrupted by adverts. Bet365.com also streamed the match, but without any commentary or adverts, and they made Zira 4/5 favourites, with Sumqayit at 16/5 and the draw at 21/10.
Zira’s average home attendance this season was 888 whilst Sumqayit’s was the second best in the league at 1,994. The overall average for the division was 1,397.
The two previous meetings between these two sides this season resulted in a 1-0 home win for Zira in September and a 0-0 draw at Sumqayit in November.
Match Report
Zira enjoyed the lion’s share of the early possession but did little with it. Nuriyev’s second minute cross from the right wing was easily caught by Dzhentov under no pressure.
Sumqayit were first seen as an attacking force in the 8th minute, when Dosso’s left wing cross reached Rovlan Muradov beyond the far post but his header looped gently over the bar.
There didn’t seem to be any danger from the subsequent goal-kick as Ruan had the ball inside the Zira area but when he went to clear, Kehat’s attempted block rebounded off him and then onto Ruan’s arm, and the referee awarded a penalty. Muradov stepped to up to take the penalty but Tiago Silva made a marvellous save, diving to this right to push the low spot-kick heading to the bottom right-hand corner away for a corner.
Sumqayit nearly scored from the corner, but Kehat’s glancing header on the run at the near post was saved by Tiago Silva’s legs and the rebound was hoofed away for another corner.
Zira were rocking and a 12th minute free-kick was steered into the net by Badalov on the stretch from 10 yards, but he and another Sumqayit player were clearly offside. The VAR decision surprisingly took a long time for what appeared to be an obvious offside, but eventually the right decision was reached.
Whilst Zira were nominally playing a 4-5-1 formation it was effectively 4-6-0 as they didn’t appear to have a natural striker on the pitch to make forward runs and Utzig looked more comfortable in midfield.
Zira’s first shot on goal came in the 30th minute following a fine piece of individual skill after a Sumqayit error. Abdullazade’s poor pass to Khachayev enabled Nuriyev to win the ball with a sliding tackle. Nuriyev quickly got to his feet, pirouetted and shot left-footed from 12 yards towards the top corner. However, keeper Dzhentov made an excellent finger-tipped save to push the ball over the bar.
The Eagles had an even better chance to open the scoring in the 40th minute. Suliman fouled Utzig just outside the Sumqayit 18 yard line. Nuriyev’s left footed free-kick hit the wall, but the referee spotted that the ball had hit the arm of Khachayev, jumping to make the block, and gave the penalty. It looked harsh as the arm wasn’t outstretched and appeared to at the side of Khachayev’s body although the decision stood after the VAR check. Unfortunately for Zira, captain Aliyev’s spot-kick was drilled a couple of feet wide of the keeper’s right-hand post.
An even first half ended scoreless thanks to the two missed penalties and a disallowed goal. The floodlights were switched on during the interval as the darkness descended.
Sumqayit had a half-hearted handball appeal for a penalty 4 minutes into the second half when the ball struck Acka, but the referee allowed play to continue. A minute later Ninga ran across the face of the penalty area to shoot from just over 20 yards but the low shot lacked power and was straight at Tiago Silva, who made a regulation save.
Zira created another chance in the 51st minute. Sadykhov dummied Kuliyev’s pass from the left-hand touchline enabling Utziq to step inside Khachayev ,but after running into the area, he blazed wildly high and wide from 10 yards.
Utzig was in the action 5 minutes later, running at the Sumqayit backline before playing the ball wide to the left to Sadykhov. However, the attempted chip to the far post sailed a few feet wide with the keeper untroubled.
Isayev was a tad unfortunate to receive a yellow card in the 65th minute after fending off a challenge from Muradov, and an accidental stray arm made contact with the Sumqayit midfielder, who fell to the floor.
Utzig went on a mazy run from the left-hand touchline but was crowded out, but when the loose ball reached Soumah just outside the area he completely missed his kicked.
With 71 minutes played Murata dived in an effort to win a penalty after a shoulder charge from Ruan and was justly shown a yellow card by the referee.
Sumqayit’s best chance of the second half to-date came with 13 minutes remaining, but Kehat’s acrobatic volley to a bouncing ball from 14 yards produced another fine one handed diving save from Tiago Silva, scooping the ball away as it bounced just in front of him.
At the other end, Isayev jumped to chest control Soumah’s chip into the Sumqayit area but he was quickly closed down by the visitors’ defence. The rebound made its way to Nuriyev whose effort nearly hit the corner flag.
Zira’s most flowing passing move released Ilkin Muradov on the right, who played a first time cross into the danger zone. Ustig’s attempt to reach the ball on the stretch only succeed in diverting the ball over the bar from just outside the 6 yard line.
As the minutes ticked by Sumqayit looked the side most likely to break the deadlock. Badalov ran into the Zira area but his cross hit the chest of Ruan. On 90 minutes a cross-field pass from the left reached Muradov beyond the far post, but after trying to control on his chest the ball ran away from him and Tiago Silva gratefully dived on the ball.
In the last minute of the three added, Muradov’s attempted through ball to release Sorga was well cut-out by Acka, and the game ended shortly after.
Unsurprisingly the match ended in a goal-less draw as Zira extended their run to one goal in 9 league matches. They remained in 4th and Sumqayit stayed in 2nd place
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trZg1vwqCe8
FK Zira : Tiago Silva – Aliyev, Acka, Ruan, Isayev- Nuriyev, Zebli ( Ibrahim ), Sadykhov ( Soumah ), Kuliyev ( Muradov ), Ibrahamli - Utzig
FK Sumqayit : Dzhentov – Badalov, Suliman, Khachayev – Muradov, Mossi, Abdullazade, Murata, Dosso ( Sorga ) - Kehat, Ninga ( Aliev )
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