Having reached the R16 finals of the Europa League, Qarabag opened a new page in the history of Azerbaijani football and drew 2:2 with German Bayer in the first game in Baku.
Idman.biz reports that for the 5th time in the history of European Cups, the Azerbaijani club has achieved such a result in the first match held at home.
So far, our teams have traveled 4 times with the score of 2:2 in the first game. The fate of our representatives, who could not defeat their opponent in their own field, was different.
Khazar Lankaran's Estonia victory
Khazar Lankaran is the first Azerbaijani club to settle for a 2:2 draw in the first game of the European Cup held at home. In 2012, a prolific peace was experienced in the meeting with "Nomme Kalyu". Azerbaijan, which debuted in the European Cup in 1994, has not seen such a result in the previous 18 years. Lankaran club managed to win in Estonia. Our representative won on the shores of the Baltic Sea with 2 unanswered goals.
Unlucky 2 for Neftchi
Neftchi is the second Azerbaijani club who drew 2:2 at home. But the second game was unsuccessful for the Baku representative, who scored two goals and conceded two. The capital club has faced such a situation three times.
In 2015, the match against Mladost in Montenegro was prevented from going to extra time due to the away goal rule, which was in effect at that time - 1:1. Neftchi, which went to Israel four years later, was defeated by Bnei Yehuda with a score of 1:2. In 2021, the black and whites scored three unanswered goals against HIK in Finland.
Familiar result to Qarabag
Before the match between Qarabag and Bayer, only our two clubs signed a 2:2 home draw in the first match. It is interesting that the same results were recorded in the Europa League. But Qarabag has its own 2:2 at home. The phrase Qarabag and others formed in recent years is appropriate here as well. If Neftchi and Khazar Lankaran achieved these results in the qualification stages, Gurban Gurbanov's teams faced such a score 3 times in the home match of the group. In the group stage, it doesn't matter if this haircut happens in the 1st or 2nd round. Matches with Slovan in 2016, APOEL three years later, and Omonia in 2021 ended like this. The first two duels took place in the Europa League, and the last in the Conference League.
Third time pays for all
Qarabag must also stopped the successful tradition of the German club. Bayer should return from the trip with a score of 2:2. The representative of Leverkusen, who was in such a situation twice in the history of the European Cups, won the stage in both cases. As the proverb goes, third time pays for all should be appropriate for the guests at Bay Arena, and Qarabag should break the tradition of the hosts. In the 1/8 finals of the UEFA Cup in the 1987/88 season, Bayer returned from Rotterdam peacefully and scored a goal against Feyenoord at home.
In the 2001/02 season, the first semi-final of the Champions League at Old Trafford ended with a score of 2:2. A 1:1 draw in Leverkusen was enough for Bayer to overcome Manchester United with an away goal. 22 years after that draw that led to the final with Real, "aspirins" achieved 2:2 in Baku.
It should be noted that the match between Bayer and Qarabag will be held on March 14.
Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz
