Our next opponents: Very solid at the back, dangerous up front

Position

Qarabag held on to top spot in the Premyer Liqasi at the weekend in a 2-2 draw with sixth-placed Turan Tovuz. They twice took the lead. The Brazilian Juninho opened the scoring and Leandro Andrade made it 2-1 for Qarabag in a hectic end to the game but Torvuz were able to level four minutes into added time to prevent the visitors winning their seventh game on the bounce. Qarabag made a chequered start to the season and were only fifth in the table after five games with ten teams in the the top flight in Azerbaijan. Leverkusen’s next opponents have won the domestic league title ten times since the country gained independence in 1991. The team under coach Gurban Gurbanov have been league champions since 2013/14 with the exception of the 2020/21 campaign. Qarabag have also won the cup competition in Azerbaijan seven times.

The club played SC Freiburg in the UEFA Europa League last season and proved to be a very tough opponent. Ithey lost 2-1 in Freiburg and the two teams drew 1-1 in Baku. Qarabag just missed out on going through to the Round of 16 after finishing one point behind second-placed FC Nantes. Before that, the ‘Riders’, so-called because of the two Qarabag horses on the club badge, twice lost out to German sides in Europa League play-offs, against Borussia Dortmund in 2010/11 (0-4, 0-1) and Eintracht Frankfurt in 2013/14 (0-2, 1-2). The biggest success so far was reaching the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2017/18 that included them holding Atlético Madrid to two draws. They ended up bottom of a strong group that included Chelsea and AS Roma in addition to Atlético.

This season, Qarabag have qualified for the group stage of a European competition ten times in succession and they clocked up two wins for starters. The team from Azerbaijan beat Molde at home and Häcken away 1-0.

Personnel

Andrey Lunev was in the Werkself squad last term and now he has played in goal for Qarabag since August of this year. “I’m looking forward to meting up with Andrey again, ” said Bayer 04 sporting managing director Simon Rolfes straight after the draw. 31-year-old Lunev has played for his new club in both of the matches in the Europa League and he kept a clean sheet in both games.

Coach Gurban Gurbanov is an interesting character at Qarabag. The 51-year-old has been coach at the club since 2008 and has won the Azerbaijan championship seven times and the domestic cup competition four times in those 15 years. Only the Northern Irishman Stephen Baxter has had a longer unbroken run as a coach at one club in European football (Crusaders FC). Gurbanov also coached the Azerbaijan team in 2018 and he represented his country 64 times during his playing career. The former centre-forward is a legend in his home country. As a coach, Gurbanov relies on a solid defence. The 34-year-old central defender Maxim Medvedev, who has played for Qarabag for nearly 20 years is the stalwart and captain of the team with 430 appearances to date. The Colombian Kevin Medina also has plenty of experience. Matheus Silva and Elvin Jafarguliyev have recently been the first picks at full-back. The Brazilian Matheus Silva joined the club in the summer as did his fellow countryman Juninho. The latter played for Portuguese top-flight team GD Chaves for three years and he quickly established himself as the new main striker at Qarabag. Juninho, as the sole front man, has netted nine times in 17 games for the Blue and Whites including the winner against Häcken.

A third Brazilian player is a regular starter for the Azerbaijani side: Julio Romao has started almost every game this term as a holding midfielder. The two Frenchmen Yassine Benzia and Abdellah Zoubir provide impetus to the attack. The best provider is the Cape Verde player Leandro Andrade with four assists. The 24-year-old scored the crucial goal in the 1-0 win against Molde. Gurbanov also has the option of the Albanian Redon Xhixha, who scored five times in four Champions League qualifiers. The 25-year-old has not played in the Europa League yet due to injury.

Performers

With a 4-2-3-1 line-up, Qarabag have clearly come out on top in all statistics in the previous two group matches in this Europa League campaign despite the narrow victories. In both the 1-0 against Molde and the 1:0 in Gothenburg at Häcken, Qarabag had significantly more possession, better pass completion, plus more crosses and shots than the opposition. And all the other key parameters favour the Azerbaijanis. The team led by Gurban Gurbanov want to play positive and attacking football and they have the most solid defence in the Europa League with only three efforts on goal conceded. In addition, lots of chances are created by their skillful and fast forwards. That is also reflected in the domestic league: The record champions have scored the most goals (20) and conceded the second fewest (8) after ten games.

Problems

Qarabag could easily have beaten Molde by a bigger margin. But Juninho and Co. missed a number of great chances. “We had a lot of goalmouth action and I don’t know if it should have been 3-0 or 4-0,” said coach Gurbanov. “At the end of the day, every goal scored or missed can be crucial. But the most important thing is for us to win and not how many goals we score.”

Prediction

Two games, two wins, still no goals conceded. Qarabag could not have had a much better start in Group H. A defeat in Leverkusen would not throw the Azerbaijanis off course. They entertain the Werkself at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium in Baku two weeks after the game at the BayArena. Bayer 04 will have to be prepared for a lion’s den in terms of atmosphere. Whatever the results of the two matches against the team led by head coach Xabi Alonso: Qualification for the next round would still be in Qarabag’s hands. It would be the first time the club has progressed from the group stages.