Sabah: the battle is lost, but not the war
Six minutes — that is exactly how long it took Baku's Sabah to open the scoring in a historic match for the club and to believe in the perfect scenario.
But it took the opponents more than another hour of playing time to destroy that scenario. Sabah went ahead in the first leg of the Champions League qualifying playoff against Hapoel Be'er Sheva, but was unable to hold on to the advantage. In this qualifying cycle, Veljko Simic has shown himself in all his glory, having already scored six goals. Moreover, he did it in seven matches. The Serb failed to score only in the away match against TNS. Tymoteusz Puchacz has already recorded his fourth assist. The left flank has become one of the strongest links of the "owls." Alas, Valdas Dambrauskas's charges failed to build on their success. Much would have changed if the team had managed to maintain the tempo and completed its onslaught with a second goal. But, alas, history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. In the first half we saw more of a struggle than dangerous chances.
In one of the episodes, goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov bailed out Sabah, but even he was powerless shortly before the break, when, after a ricochet off Steve Solvet, Javon East sent the ball into the net. A goal conceded right before the locker room is one of the most psychologically difficult moments in football. In the first half of the match, Sabah's players moved around the field more, trying to win the ball from their opponents. The possession statistics turned out to be almost similar at the end of the second half as well. Initially, the Baku side started with the attacking line that we had, in principle, expected to see. This time, not everything worked out for Xander Severina, who was replaced after the break by Orphey Mbina. He had also started in several qualifying matches, so he cannot be called a rotation player either. Mbina became, perhaps, the standout figure for Sabah after the break. Twice he could have put his team ahead, but his finishing was lacking and he was short on luck.
In essence, Hapoel overwhelmed its opponent with pressing, not allowing Sabah to show the game we are used to seeing from it. In the end, everything was decided by a set piece, which Igor Zlatanovic finished off with a header. A 2:1 victory for the hosts, although this match took place in Bucharest.
VALDAS DAMBRAUSKAS
HEAD COACH OF FC SABAH
I want to congratulate our opponent. We scored first, but we lost, having lost the threads of the game. The opponent turned out to be a very high-quality team. There was vertical play, and we wanted to maintain its rhythm. We tried, but we must accept this result. The score is such that we still have a chance. Last time we had the same score in the first match. Then, in the return match, we managed to show a different game. Now we must take advantage of our opponents' mistakes; we could have done that today as well.
Yes, Sabah could have scored, but at the end the score could have become 1:3 altogether, which would have noticeably complicated the task ahead of the return match. In the first, away match of the third round against Denmark's Aarhus, Sabah also lost 1:2, but then the team had a noticeable advantage, and the Scandinavians allowed the "owls" to create enough chances at their goal. That return match ended in a major success for the Azerbaijani club, and one wants to believe that the same will happen this time and Sabah will be able to repeat the achievement of Kazakhstan's Kairat, which last season managed to get through all four qualifying stages and qualify for Europe's main club tournament. The battle is lost, but the war is not lost. Now everything will definitely be decided in Baku at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium. And if the team manages to turn the disappointment of the first match into additional motivation, then this European story could have a completely different ending.
EMIN AKHMEDOV
