Qarabag secured a runaway 7-1 victory against FC Kapaz Gäncä in the Premyer Liqasi on matchday 12. In the home game against the bottom-of-the-table outfit, the Algerian Yassine Benzia was the man of the match with a hat-trick. The other goals were scored by Leandro Andrade (2), Juninho and Nariman Akhundzade. "It was an important win that did us good," said Gurban Gurbanov after the game. The coach had to manage without several injured players including the former Bayer 04 keeper Andrey Lunev. The 31-year-old will probably return in goal on Thursday for the game against the Werkself. The Azerbaijani team will also miss right-back Matheus Silva, who played in Leverkusen, due to injury.
Despite the convincing win, the Gurbanov team are second in their domestic league, one point behind leaders FK Zira. Following the 5-1 defeat at Bayer 04, Qarabag lost the next league match 2-1 away to FC Araz Naxçıvan. It was the third defeat of the season for the current champions.
The team from the capital Baku won 1-0 in the first two group matches in the UEFA Europa League against Molde and Häcken. In the following 5-1 defeat in Leverkusen, Qarabag quickly levelled the opening goal scored by Florian Wirtz on four minutes. However, the Werkself went on to control the game after the penalty scored by Toral Bayramov(16'). Alejandro Grimaldo and Victor Boniface scored to give the Black and Reds a 3-1 lead at half-time. And the visitors got off lightly given the many clear-cut chances for the Werkself. Shortly after the restart, Grimaldo with his second goal and Edmond Tapsoba sealed the victory at the BayArena.
The second game against the Werkself will also be a very difficult task for his team according to Gurban Gurbanov. "But we definitely want to produce a better performance in Baku and we did in Leverkusen." Bayer 04 will have to be prepared for a special atmosphere at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium. The fans of the 'Riders' are passionate and 26,500 spectators really got behind their team with gusto in the 1-0 win against Molde.
The situation for Qarabag in Group H remains good. They are in second place on six points and, even with a defeat against the Werkself, everything would be in their own hands in the last two games against Molde and Häcken to at least finish second in the group. The Azerbaijani side have not lost at home in the last 13 European games. The tally is seven wins and six draws. That is the longest such run to date. On the other hand, Qarabag have yet to beat a German team. Six out of seven games have ended in defeat and last season they drew 1-1 with SC Freiburg in the Europa League.
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Bayer 04 are away to SC Freiburg in the penultimate away game of the season on Sunday, 4 May with the kick-off at 17:30 CEST. Ahead of the clash at the Europa Park Stadion, head coach Xabi Alonso talked about Freiburg’s strengths and he highlighted the good team play as a big plus point for SCF.
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