The ninth round of the Azerbaijan Premier Football League concluded with the weekend’s matches. At the same time, the first round of the 4-round championship ended and the teams went to a forced break. The reason is the matches that the national teams will play in the UEFA Nations League. The Azerbaijan national team will play two matches in the coming days. Specifically, the team led by Fernando Santos will receive Estonia in Tallinn on October 11 and will clarify its relations with Slovakia in Baku on October 14.
Some of the players invited by the Portuguese coach arrived at the national team camp in a different state of mind, related to the performance of their teams in the Azerbaijan Premier League. Even the “Qarabag” players, who have a reserve match and are on top with 21 points after 8 matches, are not in a good mood. Of course, the reason is not the national championship, but the failure of Agdam’s representative in the league stage of the UEFA Europa League. After losing 0:3 to Tottenham in the first match in London, Gurban Gurbanov’s team unexpectedly lost to Malmö (Sweden) at the Republic Stadium named after Tofig Bahramov and disappointed their fans. With that, the winless streak reached four games. Previously, Qarabag lost to Dinamo Zagreb in the playoff stage of the Champions League in both matches by 0:3 and 0:2. In the national championship things are going well, the team dominates as always.
The situation of the other two ambitious teams in the Premier League, “Zira” and “Sabah”, is not entirely good. The teams representing Azerbaijan in the current European Cup season occupy fourth and fifth place in the tournament standings with 15 points each. The fact that 6 points separate these teams from the leader “Qarabag” indicates many things. Representatives of the capital have not yet been able to find a stable production schedule. Time will tell what it will be like after the break.
“Sumgayit” is one of the surprising ones. The situation of the representative of the “youth city” in the championship, which stopped at the beginning of summer in the conference league, is not encouraging. Samir Abasov’s team “falls” from eighth place with 7 points after 9 games. On the eve of the start of the season, “Sabail”, whose budget has been significantly reduced, has 7 points. But Sahin Diniyev’s team went into the break in seventh position.
The current season’s debutant “Shamakhi” is ranked sixth, which should be considered a pleasant surprise. The representative of the region, almost reformed by coach Aykhan Abbasov, scored 12 points in 8 games.
According to the results of the last season, “Neftchi”, who during the summer holidays put Roman Grigorchuk “at the wheel”, who knows Azerbaijani football well and who was successful with “Gabala”, did not seem to be himself at first round. Flagman did not win in the last 9 games. The team with 5 draws and 4 losses has a slim goal difference: 6-15. Without a doubt, the representative of the capital is the most surprising team of the first round, in a bad way! There is no logical explanation for the fact that “Neftchi” lost to the obvious outsider “Kepaz” in the last match played at the stadium in the city of Tovuz. The 4:3 victory of the representative of Ganja, who longed for victory, had a very bad financial situation, played home matches in Tovuz out of necessity, scored only 2 goals in the previous 8 matches, had a lightning effect in a clear sky . It was after this match that Roman Grigorchuk’s resignation arose and yesterday the club management made the long-awaited decision in this regard. Thus, the career of the Ukrainian expert appointed on June 26 to the position of head coach of “Neftchi” officially ended on October 7…
If someone had said on the eve of the start of the current season that “Turan Tovuz” and “Araz-Nakhchivan” would respectively take 2nd and 3rd place after the first round, they would have been stoned. But the reality is that these teams are currently the closest followers of the leader “Karabakh”. The signing of “Turan Tovuz” is the only defeat of the Agdam representative. The Tovuz representative, who started the season under the guidance of the well-known specialist Kurban Berdiyev, has 18 points. The team lost only 1 time in 9 games. Under the leadership of Elmar Bakhshiyev, “Araz-Nakhchivan” is on an upward trend. It’s not just about 17 points in 8 games. The representative of the region, who temporarily took refuge in Baku, pleases his fans with a stable performance.
Of course, these are all savings based on one round, 8-9 games. The Azerbaijan Premier League is a long marathon that will last until the end of May 2025. In other words, a lot can change even in period II, which will happen after the national break. The winter “transfer window”, which opens in January, may result in a change in balance. Therefore, it is better to wait for the championship to reach the finish line.
Information Agency “Informe”
