Qarabağ v København: play-off contribution and stats
In a UEFA Champions League play-offs for a initial time, Qarabağ FK take on a organisation with copiousness of knowledge of this theatre of a competition, FC København.
Previous meetings
• The clubs met in a 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup subordinate round, with FCK easing to a 10-0 total feat (6-0 home, 4-0 away).
• That tie was also a usually time possibly side has played a bar from their opponents’ country.
Match background
• This is QarabaÄŸ’s fourth UEFA Champions League campaign; in any of a prior three, they were separated in a third subordinate round.
• In 2016/17, a Azerbaijani bar reached a UEFA Europa League organisation theatre – for a third year in a quarrel – after being knocked out of a UEFA Champions League. They have never progressed to a turn of 32, however.
• Qarabağ competent for a UEFA Champions League after winning a Azerbaijani Premier League for a fifth time in 2016/17 – their fourth championship in a row.
• They got this distant by violence Georgian champions FC Samtredia in a second subordinate turn (5-0 home, 1-0 away) and Moldova’s FC Sheriff (0-0 home, 2-1 away).
• Qarabağ have mislaid usually one of their final 8 European home matches (W4 D3), going down 2-1 opposite ACF Fiorentina on 8 Dec 2016.
• København have seen off Slovakia’s MÅ K Žilina (3-1 away, 1-2 home) and FK Vardar of FYR Macedonia (0-1 away, 4-1 home) to strech a play-offs.
• FCK have won usually dual of their 6 UEFA Champions League play-off ties, ousting Rosenborg BK on divided goals in 2010/11 and APOEL FC 2-1 on total final season. They have mislaid to APOEL (2009/10), FC Viktoria Plzeň (2011/12), LOSC Lille (2012/13) and Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2014/15).
• In 2016/17, FCK finished third in their UEFA Champions League organisation and went on to a turn of 16 in a UEFA Europa League, losing 3-2 on total to contingent runners-up AFC Ajax.
• København competent for a 2017/18 UEFA Champions League by winning a Danish championship for a 12th time final season.
Team and manager links
• København manager Ståle Solbakken scored twice in a 5-0 win when Norway hosted Azerbaijan in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier, while Qarabağ reflection Gurban Gurbanov came on as a second-half substitute. Both group started a lapse match, a 1-0 feat for Norway in Baku.
Coach profiles
• QarabaÄŸ trainer Gurbanov is Azerbaijan’s highest-scoring general with 12 goals in 62 matches and played in Russia and Ukraine as good as Azerbaijan. Coach given 2008, he has directed QarabaÄŸ to domestic championships in a final 4 seasons.
• In his second spell as København coach, Solbakken has led a bar to 7 Danish titles. A midfielder, he was capped 58 times by Norway and finished his career during FCK after being diagnosed with a heart problem. He has also coached in Norway, Germany and England.