Aerial battles remain a persistent weakness in Azerbaijani football, both at club and national team levels. Recent goals conceded by Qarabag FK from set-pieces in the UEFA Europa League have once again highlighted the issue.
Idman.biz sought to evaluate how Azerbaijani players fare in this area, analyzing their aerial duel statistics across different competitions.
Qarabag’s Europa League Performance Focusing first on Qarabag’s group stage matches in the Europa League, goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski stands out with a 100% success rate in aerial duels, though he was involved in just one such challenge. Among the outfield players, Kevin Medina leads with 12 aerial duel wins, boasting a 66.67% success rate, ranking him 191st in the competition.
Yassin Benzia follows with 9 wins and a 60% success rate. Two Azerbaijani national team players, Bahlul Mustafazada and Badavi Huseynov, also show decent returns. Mustafazada won 8 duels (57.14%), while Huseynov claimed victory in 4 duels (57.14%). These are the only players whose successes outweigh their failures in aerial contests. Patrick Andrade (2 wins) and Matheus Silva (6 wins) each have a 50% success rate, while the rest of the team falls short.
Olavio Juninho leads Qarabag in total aerial duel wins (13), but his success rate is just 37.14%. At the lower end, Nariman Akhundzade won only 1 out of 7 aerial duels (14.29%). Emmanuel Addai (8 matches) and Oleksiy Kashchuk (5 matches) did not contest any aerial challenges.
National Team's Nations League Performance Shifting to the UEFA Nations League, five Azerbaijani players achieved a 100% success rate, though each contested just a single aerial duel: Elvin Jamalov, Mehdi Jannatov, Qismat Aliyev, Nariman Akhundzade, and Emil Mustafayev. Amin Seydiyev excelled with a 75% success rate, winning 3 out of 4 duels across three matches. Overall, only 8 national team players recorded more aerial duel victories than defeats. Among those, Badavi Huseynov stands out as the only outfield player to start more than two matches. He also led in total aerial wins, succeeding in 6 of his 10 duels (60%) over six games.
Domestic League Insights in the Misli Premier League, 17 players have maintained a 100% aerial duel success rate this season, with 12 of them being goalkeepers. Cristian Avram, Araz-Nakhchivan's goalkeeper, leads this group with 11 wins. Among the five outfield players in this category, Carlos Jatoba, also from Araz-Nakhchivan, has the highest win count with 4 successful duels.
For players with over 40 aerial duel wins, Jon Irazabal (Sabah) leads with 95 wins and a 72.52% success rate. He is followed by Ruan Renato (Zira) with 79 wins (71.52%) and Yuri Matias (Neftchi) with 71 wins (66.98%). Notably, 14 of the 17 players surpassing the 40-win mark are defenders, including the top 11.
Among non-defenders, forward Pavol Safranko (Sabah) leads with 44 wins (38.6%), while midfielder Roi Kehat (Sumgayit) stands out with 42 wins (56.76%). Among local players in this elite group, Bakhtiyar Hasanalizada (Araz-Nakhchivan) boasts the highest success rate at 65.71% (46 wins). Amin Seydiyev (Sabah) leads in total wins among domestic players with 51 (63.75%).
Height Matters Height remains a key factor in aerial success. Of the 17 top performers mentioned, 11 stand at 185 cm or taller. Bakhtiyar Hasanalizada is the shortest at 177 cm, making his performance even more impressive.
Vugar Mammadov
Idman.biz
