THE EPIC HAS ENDED WITHOUT HAVING BEGUN

Azerbaijan's football clubs have stopped playing in the European cups, essentially, before even having started to play in earnest. Neither the country's present champions, Xazar-Lankaran, in the UEFA Champions League, nor Neftci, the capital's football team, nor Imisli's MKT Araz in the UEFA cup were able to get through the first qualifying round. Moreover, these three clubs of Azerbaijan had a lot in common in their short European cup epics. 

Azerbaijan's present champions were unlucky right from the start with the draw. Agasalim Mircavadov's team, with experience of going through the first qualifying round of the Champions League as part of the capital's Neftchi team, were drawn against the strongest club at the first stage - Zagreb Dinamo. Foreign and Azerbaijani punters alike said in unison that the Lankaran team would lose to its terrible opponent on all fronts. But Xazar-Lankaran put up a real fight - the Azerbaijani footballers were the first to score a goal in both matches but unfortunately they couldn't retain the upper hand. In the first match at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium, Xazar-Lankaran were winning only for about five minutes (the final score was a 1:1 draw), but when they were playing away, Agasalim Mircavadov's lads were ahead until almost halfway through the second half and nearly threw the whole of Croatia into a state of shock. The return Croatian game ended with the same score as the week before - 1:1 at the end of the second half - but in extra time, our team, playing undermanned, was unable to withstand their rival's attack and let in another two goals. 

Neither does that leader of Azerbaijani football, Baku's Neftci, which was a worthy opponent of Austria's SV Reid, deserve the torrent of criticism which rained down upon it. In their away game, Neftci were the first to let in a goal at the very start but when it looked like defeat was certain they equalised. It was only at the end of the game that the Austrians managed to break the resistance of Qurban Qurbanov's lads, scoring two goals. After the first round, Neftci's chances of getting through to the next stage were reckoned to be the most favour-able - thanks to the goal scored during their away match. Incidentally, the runners up in the country's last championship were the only Azerbaijani club to be successful in the European cups - in the return match the Azerbaijani footballers won 2:1 but that wasn't enough to ensure victory: the Austrians won based on the aggregate score of the two games.

The clash between Imisli's MKT Araz and Poland's Groclin was the most boring.  The first match at the Republican Stadium was very uninteresting and ended in a goalless draw. In the return game, the Imisli lads fought to the end. But with just a few minutes to go to the end of the game, unable to withstand one of the Polish team's last attacks, Imisli let in the only goal and thereby lost the two-game clash. 

It should be noted that the unsuccessful performances of all three Azerbaijani clubs in the European cups have a lot in common. Thus, Azerbaijani footballers got shown red cards in practically every European cup match. Emin Quliyev, the captain of the present Azerbaijani champions, Xazar-Lankaran, and their Frenchman, Edmond N'Timoa, managed to get a red card in the first and second game against Zagreb Dinamo. Zaur Tagizada, the captain of Neftchi, did not play to the end of the game against Austria's SV Reid, getting two yellow cards during the match and then of course, a red card. In Imisli's MKT Araz return match in Poland, the Azerbaijani team played a man down after Moldovan player Anatoliy Dorosh was sent off. Naturally, every time a player was sent off, the Azerbaijani clubs were no longer playing against their opponents on a level field and they lost. In total, referees showed four red cards in the six matches played by Azerbaijani clubs and all the red cards were shown to our compatriots. A simple but logical conclusion flows from all of this: Azerbaijani clubs need to step up work on discipline in their teams. At the same time, what talk can there be of discipline when the captains of Xazar-Lankaran and Neftci teams, who by their role should be restrained and disciplined, were the ones to receive red cards. Our teams will be able to resolve many of their problems and to reckon on a more successful performance both in the European cups and in the domestic championship once having worked on this task.

Another no less important problem for Azerbaijani clubs is the lack of physical training. Looking at when the Azerbaijani clubs let in decisive goals, it's clear that weak physical training is one of the main reasons for the unsuccessful performances of our teams in Europe. For instance, in its return match, Xazar-Lankaran let in a goal at the end of the second half and in extra time the Lankaran lads, playing undermanned, practically did not attack and let in another two goals.  Baku's Neftci let in two goals in the last minutes of the game and lost 1:3. In the return match in Baku, Qurban Qurbanov's lads simply crushed the Austrians in the first half, scoring two much-needed goals. But in the second half, it was as if the Azerbaijani footballers had been substituted. They practically went about the pitch unable to match their physically strong opponents and consequently lost in the last minutes of the game. The same is true of MKT Araz who also let in the only goal right at the end of the game.

It should be noted that the problem of physical training has been topical for our teams for many years now. Nevertheless, no progress has been made in this issue as yet. Incidentally, one can recall the recent matches which the Azerbaijani national team played in the qualifying round of the 2008 European Championship: Sahin Diniyev's lads were the first to score against the Kazakhs and the Polish but were unable to keep the upper hand subsequently. So the problem of physical training is characteristic of all Azerbaijani football and until there is some success made in this regard, Azerbaijani clubs will continue to vegetate on the fringes of European and world football.