Today at 20:45, the Match of the 2nd round of the group of the Europa League group between the champion of Azerbaijan Karabakh and the French Nanta will begin at the Republican Stadium named after the Tofika Bahramov stadium.
The meeting will be judged by a team of referees from Albania, led by Anea George. Italians, led by Luke Pireretto, were appointed video assistants.
“Karabakh” in the 1st round lost to the German “Freiburg” with a score of 1: 2. Nantes, in turn, with the same score beat the Greek Olympiacos at home.
In another match of the 2nd round in the Grack group, the Greeks will accept the Germans today.
Tournament position:
1. “Freiburg” – 3 points (1 match)
2. “Nant” – 3 (1)
3. “Olympiacos” – 0 (1)
4. “Karabakh” – 0 (1).
We recall that Karabakh went a long way before he ended up in the European Cup group for the ninth time in a row. The team of Gurban Gurbanov defeated three rivals (Polish “Lech”, the Swiss “Zurich” and the Hungarian “Ferencvarosh”) in the qualification of the Champions League and was very close to the Group round of the main European club tournament. Alas, stupid mistakes in the return game with the Czech Victoria did not allow Agdams for the second time in history to play in the main stage of the Champions League. Nevertheless, participation in the Europa League, where the composition of the participants, of course, is not as strong as in the Champion League, but also very solid, is worth a lot. The proof of this is the level of rivals inherited “Karabakh.”
Nant, as the owner of the France Cup, directly hit the European League group. The 8-time French champion was last won the national championship in 2001. And the latest participation of the “Canarech” in European competitions was recorded in the 2004/05 season, when the team participated in the now non -existent tournament – Interoto Cup. The highest achievement of Nanta in European competitions is the access to the Champions League semifinals in the 1995/96 season.
Nantes with Azerbaijani teams in European competitions did not meet earlier. But Karabakh spent eight matches with the French, in which he tied three times and suffered five defeats. The general difference of clogged and missed heads looks awesome – 3:18. However, at the group stages, Karabakh lost to the French only once: in the Europa League-2015/16, the Agdams lost 0: 1 Monaco. In Baku, the teams tied 1: 1. And a year earlier, “Karabakh” also in the group of the Europa League twice spread out the world with “Saint -Etienne” – 0: 0, 1: 1.
At the same time, extremely unpleasant memories remained from long -standing games with Montpellier and relatively recent matches with Marseille. In the Interototo -1999/2000 Cup, Karabakh missed nine goals from Montpellier for two matches – 0: 3, 0: 6. And in the 1/16 finals of the League of Conferences of last season, our team was weaker than Marseille – 1: 3, 0: 3.