EUROPEAN CUPS: NEW EXPECTATIONS

The draw in Nyon, Switzerland started the new season of European competition. Now we know the international rivals of the champion of Azerbaijan Garabagh, silver and bronze medalists Gabala and Inter, as well as our fourth runner Zira.

At the second qualification stage of the Champions League, Georgian team Samtredia will be playing with Garabagh. Our fans know this club very well, which met last season with the Azerbaijani Gabala. In previous years, Samtredia was known under different names: Lokomotiv, Iberia, Sanavardo, Juba. The first football club in the city of Samtredia was founded in 1936. At that time, the team was represented in the second league of the USSR championship under the title Lokomotiv. Its greatest achievement was in 1994-1995, when the team played under the title Iberia and raised up to play at European championships. However, the debut of the blue-and-whites was unsuccessful.

After a long period, Samtredia finally became a champion of the country in 2016 and eligible to play in the Champions League. Gia Tsetsadze (42) has been coaching the team since June 2015. The team is mainly composed of Georgian players with several players with Ukrainian passports. The championship of Georgia is now in full swing, and after 17 games, Samtredia is ranked the third. The team scored 30 points (9 wins and 3 draws), and 5 defeats.

This will be their seventh confrontation in the history of participation in European clubs between Azerbaijani and Georgian clubs. Currently the representatives of Azerbaijan are leading the race. In the previous 6 matches, our teams passed the Georgian barrier four times. The most fierce rival of Georgians was Neftchi, which has knocked out Zestafoni and Chihura from European Cups, and Gabala, which has blocked the way to Europe for Tbilisian Dynamo and Samtredia. The Georgian fans rejoiced only to the victories of Sioni over Baki and Tbilisi over Shamkir. As for the general results of 12 matches, then there is equality - the representatives of each country won 5 wins and 2 draws.

Here is how Gurban Gurbanov, head coach of Garabagh, estimated the results of the draw in his interview with R+: "We had the strongest of potential rivals. Last season in the second leg against Gabala, we watched our rival’s play. This team has a character. They continue playing in the championship, and this is the advantage of our rivals. We will try to mobilize in the shortest possible time, eliminate shortcomings and start the game in full readiness."

Inter will meet at the first stage with Mladost from the Serbian city of Lucani. The club was founded in 1952, but did not achieve serious success. The team won the league in 1994/95 season, but then again rolled down. Mladost returned to the big leagues in 2006/07. But this time, it could not demonstrate a stable game and again moved to the lower league. Last season the team took the fourth place and for the first time in its history won a ticket to the European Cups. It is interesting that one of the players was the former attacker of the Azerbaijani national team Murad Huseynov, who played for this club in 2009-2011. Since 2014, Mladost has been trained by Nenad Milanovic. Most of the team's players are Serbian football players, but they also have legionnaires from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Cameroon and Nigeria. This summer the Serbian club carried out several more transfers. Among the recruits is the striker from Uzbekistan Husniddin Gafurov and the forward from Ghana Bismarck Appia. So far, domestic clubs have played 6 times with rivals from Serbia. One of the meetings occurred back in Yugoslavia, and five in Serbia. The current rival of Mladost, Inter, checked its chances with the Serbs nine years ago. Then the Baku club could not defeat Partizan. In general, until now Azerbaijani teams have only managed to knock Serbs out of the further struggle. Two years ago, it was Gabala, which defeated Chukarichki after two games. Of the 12 matches, our clubs won only one with 4 draws and 7 defeats. The first match between representatives of our countries took place in 1999, when Neftchi played with Crvena Zvezda.

Inter coach Zaur Svanadze estimated the result of the draw as normal. He believes that Mladost is not a weak opponent: "I would say that we got the most difficult rival. The draw will leave no choice. We will fight to the end. Although the composition has changed, I believe in my team. The first game will be held in Serbia. So, it will be possible to analyze the opponent well."

Zira, which is going to play in the Euroleague for the first time, will play with Differdanj from Luxembourg established in 2003 as a result of merger - Red Boys Differdanj and AS Differdanj. Starting in the second division in the 2003/04, Differdanj became a champion in two years and won the right to play in the elite. In the seasons of 2008/09 and 2014/15, Differdanj became the silver medalist of Luxembourg. In addition, the club became the owner of the cup four times. Before the merger, Red Boys Differdanj became the champion of Luxembourg six times and the cup holder 15 times. For the first time playing in European competition in 2007, Differdanj has been playing there since 2009/10. In 2011/2012, Differdanj even got to the stage of the playoffs, knocking out of the struggle Levadia and Olympiakos, but losing to the last stage to the French PSG.

Pascal Karzania from France, who became the head coach last summer, coaches the team. Although most of the players in the Luxembourg club are local players, there are plenty of foreign players, mostly from France. There are also players from Tunisia and Belgium. In the last season, Differdanj became the silver medalist of the Luxembourg championship. Karzaniya's players have 20 wins in 26 matches, 5 draws and 1 defeat.

In continental tournaments, this is our second meeting with Differdanj. So far, only in the last year's cycle, Garabagh met with Luxembourgers and won after two matches.

Here is the comments of Ayha Abbasov, head coach of Zira, about the Luxembourgish team: "Differdanj is an experienced European team. As you know, we are amateurs. We dream to succeed in the first season and pass at least two stages. Our first rival is a strong team. Despite this, I believe in my team."

Gabala starts the fight from the second qualification stage and will play with the winner of the match between Yagelloniya (Poland) and Dynamo (Batumi, Georgia). The winner of Mladost - Inter will meet with the strongest team after the match between Fola (Luxembourg) - Milsami (Moldova), and the winner of the pair Zira - Differdanj will play with Astra.