After last Thursday’s first-leg draw in Baku, Qarabag were back in domestic action at the weekend. Given the fact that the defending champions of Azerbaijan were 23 points clear at the top with 11 games to go, Gurbanov was able to fully rotate his team to take on fourth-placed Zira on Sunday.
It meant that nobody who’d started the Leverkusen game three days earlier was named in the side that began the league encounter. Elvin Jafarguliyev and Julio Romao, who had been suspended in Europe, did start, though. They are both available again for the trip to the BayArena. Patrick and Leandro Andrade were introduced in the second half. Otherwise, Qarabag were able to rest their entire defence and attackers before travelling to Germany.
Gurbanov had already started the fighting talk after the first leg: “Lots of people said before the game that Leverkusen are good, the gap between the two teams is big, and that defeat wouldn’t be a disgrace. But I believed that we would play well. I’ll prepare the team to play even better in Germany. Our opponents won’t be able to relax.”
His key players were certainly able to relax in the league at the weekend. Juninho, who scored the second goal against the Werkself but also went off injured late on, wasn’t in the squad for the 3-1 win over Zira. The Brazilian remains a doubt for Thursday’s return leg. “Things look better than first feared,” said Gurbanov. “We hope he can at least be on the bench.”
Qarabag also have more options in defence now after Colombian Kevin Medina returned to action against Zira after a long spell out injured. The Azerbaijani champions come to the BayArena well rested, with a fit squad – apart from the uncertain Juninho – and certainly full of confidence after their efforts in the first leg. They will prove a tough nut to crack for Bayer 04 to reach the quarter-finals.
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
Show more
The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
Show more
Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
Show more
A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
Show more
