An away victory for our team

“Shkendija” (North Macedonia) – “Qarabağ” – 0:1

Toral Bayramov, 18’ (pen.)

“Qarabağ” played their first match in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. Our team faced North Macedonian side “Shkendija” away from home.

Our head coach Gurban Gurbanov fielded the following starting XI in the match held in Skopje: 99. Mateusz Kochalski, 27. Toral Bayramov, 81. Kevin Medina, 13. Bahlul Mustafazade, 2. Mateus Silva, 20. Kady Borges, 35. Pedro Bicalho, 11. Emmanuel Addai, 10. Abdellah Zoubir (c), 15. Leandro Andrade, 90. Nariman Akhundzade.

Our team started the away match strongly, attracting attention with their attacking football from the first minutes. Their continued pressure paid off in the 18th minute when Leandro Andrade won a penalty, which was confidently converted by Toral Bayramov. After the goal, fans witnessed a game full of end-to-end attacks from both sides.

Despite creating numerous clear goal-scoring opportunities in the first half, our players couldn’t increase the lead before the break. Goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski also played a crucial role by denying several scoring chances for the opposition.

In the second half, both teams continued to play open, attacking football in search of more goals. Although there were dangerous moments in front of both goals, the score remained unchanged. Thus, our team secured a 1:0 away victory.

It should be noted that the return leg of the third qualifying round against “Shkendija” will be played on August 12 in Baku. The match will take place at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium and is scheduled to kick off at 20:00.