Our next opponents: Qarabag won’t let Werkself relax in second leg

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.

Key players rested

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.”

Doubts over Juninho

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.