CLOSING THE CIRCLE

The football season in Azerbaijan has finished. It was dominated by Baki, who won gold medals for the second time in their history. The team was always in the hunt, or on top, while the competition was so close that the title was only decided on the last day of the competition. However, it must be acknowledged that the Capitals proved stronger than the opposition in both play and personnel.

Recipe for Baki's success 

The main architect of the club's latest success was head coach Gioko Hajievski. Last season was mainly given over to familiarization with the team, while this season the team made a huge breakthrough. Some skilful transfers, which paved the way for defender Sasha Yunisoglu, forward Giorgi Adamiya and midfielder Mahmud Qurbanov, also played their part. Also helpful was the fact that Gioko Hajievski was once in charge of the Azerbaijan national team. This helped him to understand the potential of local players. The road to the title was not an easy one for Baki, who dropped some important points in the second half of the championship. Defeat at the hands of Xazar-Lankaran and Olimpik called into serious question the golden aspirations of the Capitals. However, their main rival, Inter, also dropped points. 

As a result, going into the last game Baki were one point ahead of the Bankers and needed a win against Mugan. Although the psychological pressure was very much apparent in the opening minutes of the match, it disappeared after the first goal. Any doubts about victory were removed in the first half, when Batista and Adamiya scored a goal each and Mugan proved unable to respond. The opponents were finished off by Ahmed Tijani, who scored twice in the dying moments of the game, bringing the much-coveted gold to his teammates.

Although Inter could not retain the title they won last year, second place is not such a bad result either. Forward Walter Guglemon was best striker of the championship, with 17 goals.

The Uruguayan would have gladly exchanged his personal prize for gold if he could. In fact, his team could have won the title if they hadn't dropped points to Neftci and then lost to Qarabag. The latter, by the way, played another nasty trick on the Bankers by beating them in the National Cup final. Statistically speaking, however, this was nothing unusual - Inter losing their third cup final. The team will try to break this unwelcome tradition, but not before next year.

Third place went to Simurq and made the biggest headlines of the season. The club from Zaqatala managed to reach their goal by overcoming many contenders for bronze, including Xazar-Lankaran, Qarabag, Olimpik and Karvan, which made their achievement even more remarkable. This position in the league makes them eligible to play in the European League next year, so the team's international debut is not too far away. At the same time, Simurq's bronze is well-deserved because the club was in the top three from the very start of the championship and was even top of the table at one stage. Despite the pessimistic forecasts of some analysts, the club managed to cope with the pressure, by finishing third. Of course it was difficult to compete with Baki and Inter, but the bronze is a good indication of the club's potential.

Xazar-Lankaran outside Europe

The season ended in disappointment for Xazar-Lankaran who, despite their title ambitions, significantly underperformed over the season, even though the club has high quality players capable of taking on the biggest challenges. At one point in the championship the southerners were justifying expectations by leading the table, but they lost consistency. The culmination was the home defeat to Qabala which took the club out of the first three. Great hopes for another title were bound up with head coach Igor Ponomarev, who replaced Rasim Kara in the spring break. However, the new coach failed to secure the desired result. Subsequently, the team was kicked out of the national cup early on, despite having won it twice in the past. Xazar-Lankaran's Bulgarian striker Ivan Tsvetkov lost his appetite for goals after leading the list of scorers at the end of the first half. In the second round his performance fell well short of fans' expectations. It was therefore no wonder that the club could not secure a place in the European tournaments for next year. In order to qualify, Xazar-Lankaran needed Inter to beat Qarabag in the cup final. This didn't happen and the Bankers lost. Thus Xazar-Lankaran have to draw the right conclusions from this latest failure in order to avoid a repetition next season. 

Qarabag, who finished fifth and reached the cup final, deserve special commendation. It is mainly due to the Agdam club that Inter lost the leadership of the championship several games before the finish. The match was held in the Quzanli village of the Agdam District, where the local crowd had not seen a big game for a long time. Defeat, therefore, was not in the home side's plans - they beat Inter 2:1. Qarabag also proved to be a strong cup team, beating the same Inter in the cup final. This was a very important game for the club because a place in the European League next season was at stake. While the Bankers had already secured a place in the European tournament as runners-up in the national league, a defeat would have left the Agdam club without a place in Europe. And the club took their chance, thanks to a second-half spot kick by Vaqif Cavadov. According to the new regulations of the European League, national cup winners will enter the competition in the second qualifying round. This initiative by UEFA President Michele Platini is intended to raise the prestige of the tournament. Qarabag's coach Qurban Qurbanov has managed to create a decent team capable of meeting the most difficult of challenges.

In the meantime, the biggest disappointment of the season was the performance of Neftci, who had always vied for medals in the past. Over the last few years the club has not won a single national trophy, while frequent chances of coach have not worked to the benefit of the club. Further, during the winter the club parted with the emblematic Rasad Sadixov, Giorgi Adamiya and Branimir Subasic, who turned out to be unwanted by coach Hans-Jurgen Goede. This dubious tactic produced no results and the German coach was replaced by Boyukaga Agayev, who had worked at the club in Kazbek Tuayev's time. The specialist has begun to build a new team made up of young players, so next season we will see a different Neftci, while attention will now focus on the transfer market.

Overall, the championship was quite an interesting and memorable one. There was struggle, interesting matches and tension which was sustained to the last day of the competition. In other words, there was every reason to consider the championship successful. It is to be hoped that the clubs preparing to represent Azerbaijan in European competitions will add a few points to the country's UEFA ranking. There is every possibility of doing that.