Ferencváros played 1-1 away from home with Qarabag of Azerbaijan in the first match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League.
CHAMPIONS’ LEAGUE
QUALIFIER, ROUND 3, FIRST MATCH
QARABAG (AZERI)–FRANCISVÁROS 1–1 (1–1)
Mouth, Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, 29 500 viewer. V: Ekberg (Swedish)
QARABAG: Mahammadaliyev – Vesovics, Mustafazade, B. Huseynov, Bayramov – Garayev, Jankovics (Romao, 84.), Ozobic (Sheydaev, 79.) – Owusu, Wadji (Andrade, 90+3.), Zoubir. Head coach: Gurban Gurbanov
FRANCIS CITY: Dibusz – Botka, S. Mmaee (Thelander, 57.), Knoester (Kovacevic, 67.), Civic – Esiti, Laidouni (Besic, 88.) – A. Traoré, Zachariassen, Nguen – F. Boli (Veczei, 67.). Head coach: Stanislav Cherchesov
Scorer: Owusu (34.), ill. F. Boli (17.)
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It was Ferencváros’s turn. Recently, artists such as Elton John, Jennifer Lopez or the Colombian singer Shakira entertained the Azeris at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium – Ferencváros was next (as a football team) on Wednesday night. The stands in Azerbaijan’s second largest stadium were packed, the locals knew very well that Qarabag’s matches are like a concert, their kamikaze-style team’s matches are not only full of opportunities, but also plenty of goals.
Qurban Qurbanov, who has been in service for the fourteenth year, still pulled out his safety card against the Hungarian champion: although no defensive midfielders are usually included in his team in the championship, against Ferencváros two were in the starting line-up, alongside one of the club’s legendary players, Qara Qarayev, who was born in the area filtered by Marko Jankovics from Montenegro. In any case, the head coach of Qarabag had to play chess when putting together the starting line-up, his two best footballers, the Brazilian Kady and the naturalized Brazilian Richard Almeida, were unable to play due to yellow cards, the Colombian Kevin Medina was not available due to his injury, and on the day of the match it was also revealed that the routine Maksim Medvedev also fell out of line.
Ferencváros, on the other hand, named Ryan Mmaee, who has been suffering from an injury for months, in the squad, many believed that he would at least be on the bench, but while the guard kicked the ball in the capital of Azerbaijan, the Moroccan played in the club’s NB III team’s match in Szolnok . The professional staff is probably confident that he will be in such a condition for the second leg that, if necessary, he can at least spend some time on the field.
But Franck Boli was still there!
The Ivorian striker also scored in Slovan’s goal a week ago in Bratislava, while he needed seventeen minutes to score in Baku. When the video referee was at his disposal in the third round of the qualifiers, the Swedish referee quickly analyzed the goal, but the VAR system found no fault, so the Hungarian champion could be happy. The home team started the match as expected, they grabbed the ball, which they didn’t really want to give to Ferencváros, but Franck Boli’s goal apparently shocked Qarabag and the picture of the game changed.
It was interesting that the African attacker was put in a somewhat unusual role this time by Stanislav Cherchesov, surprisingly Tokmac Nguyen was at the top, and Franck Boli joined the attacks from one line back – the draw came in. What caused a malfunction in Ferencváros’ game were the sold balls. In addition to the defenders, the midfielders also made too many unforced errors, and Aissa Laidouni’s through ball proved (indirectly) fatal. Qarabag equalized after a free kick from a sold ball, s Owusu his goal breathed life into the home team’s football.
Their previously anemic offensive game suddenly gained momentum, the Ferencváros defenders had plenty to do, and in the moments before the break, VAR invalidated an Azeri goal due to an offside, so the sides went to the break with a draw.
The second half was not about consistency in the defense of Ferencváros… Samy Mmaee of the inner defenders had to be replaced due to an injury, and soon after Mats Knoester also came off the field, and from then on Fradi tried to stop the Azeri attacks with a new pair of inner defenders. , alongside the Danish Rasmus Thelander, the Bosnian Adnan Kovacevic was the back man. At that point, Qarabag had more of the ball, but the momentum that characterized them at the end of the first half had already subsided by this time. The rhythm of the meeting dropped considerably, the game was stopped a lot due to irregularities, not much of the home team’s kamikaze style was realized – this was praise for the Hungarian champion.
Except.
Ferencváros couldn’t really gain momentum either: although there were no problems with the starts, the counterattacks regularly died when approaching the Azeri goal. Sometimes a bad pass, sometimes an imprecise start put an end to the counterattack. It was also interesting to see that in the last quarter of an hour the Qarabag players did not rush the game. Although, due to their style, it was expected that they would try to end every action with a shot at the goal or a header, but at that time, during throw-ins, football players with their heads down were waiting for the ball, there were fewer individual flashes and nice moves. It wasn’t until the last minutes that the game sped up again, first Qarabag could have scored an easy goal at the end of the action on the left side, then the goal was at Tokmac Nguen’s feet – but it stayed there.
Qarabag fans were expecting fireworks, dozens of chances and shots on goal, but this evening they had to make do with a mid-level, fast-paced match. Ferencváros can be more satisfied with the result, they achieved a draw away from home, so the decision was left for the Üllői road match. The rematch will be held in Budapest on Tuesday from 20:00, like in Baki, the teams can fight in front of a full house in the Groupama Arena.
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