Sabah's final étude
90 minutes that will decide everything. Today the Azerbaijani football club Sabah takes the field to settle its fate.
It goes into a game where there is practically no room for error. At stake is a ticket to the Champions League, a ticket to the dream of any club in Europe. And today that club could be a team that is still very young, a team with its own short but rich history. However, Hapoel Be'er Sheva will try to bring about the very same thing for itself. For each of the teams this will be the first major club tournament in Europe, and so the stakes are too high. In the first game, played in Bucharest, Sabah failed to show everything it is capable of. Or rather, it was not allowed to do so by an opponent that did not let it mount attacks and pressed high. True, it was the Baku side that opened the scoring in the game, but then it failed to build on and, at the very least, hold on to the advantage. Sabah's head coach Valdas Dambrauskas noted that the team had analyzed the mistakes made in the first match, not ruling out that the upcoming return game might go into extra time, for which the "owls" must also be ready. What stood out about the opponent? We have already noted the pressing. In the first match Sabah allowed Hapoel to make a large number of touches of the ball in its own penalty area.
While the Baku side made only twelve of them over the whole game, the opponents' forward Igor Zlatanović alone made as many as eleven touches. This speaks to the not very successful defensive play of the Azerbaijani club, which, nevertheless, is unlikely to undergo changes in the return game. Most likely Steve Solvet, Rahman Dashdamirov, Akim Zedadka and Tymoteusz Puchacz will appear in the starting lineup, and Stas Pokatilov will start in goal. The holding zone, in the persons of Ivan Lepinjica and Umarali Rahmonaliev (the main pair), needs to be ready for pressing in the middle zone, which is possible even if the visitors play to hold on. In that case it will be more convenient to make use of the flanks. It was precisely the left flank that created the quick goal in the first game, when Puchacz delivered a pass to Veljko Simić, and the Serb scored his sixth goal already in the qualification. Along with Simić, Joy-Lance Mikkels and Orphée Mbina may appear in attack. The likelihood of Mbina appearing is higher than that of Xander Severina. Severina was good over a certain stretch, but did not particularly distinguish himself in the first match, which cannot be said of Mbina. He was the most active player on the field after coming on in the second half and even had two chances to score. Alexey Isayev will most likely appear in the center behind the forwards. In the first match he failed to show his best in his position, but the match in Baku may change this picture. Sabah is the team that shoots on goal the most in this qualification, despite a not very successful last match. In all the previous games (even in the one lost away against Aarhus) the "owls" displayed their dynamic football, allowing opponents to control the ball only in spells.
VALDAS DAMBRAUSKAS
HEAD COACH OF FC SABAH
We drew conclusions after the first match. For now we are trailing our opponent by one goal. The team is ready for the upcoming game. I believe we will win. For us it makes no difference which stadium we play at. My players are professionals at what they do. This is a stadium already familiar to us. I think there will be a good atmosphere at the game.
Will Hapoel play to hold on, or play as the second number? Or perhaps it will try to seize the ball from the very first minutes, not allowing the hosts to score the quick goal we are all waiting for? We will get the answers to these questions very soon, with the start of the decisive match.
RAN KOZHUK
HEAD COACH OF FC HAPOEL BE'ER SHEVA
An important game awaits us, and we believe in our own strength. We are fully focused on the upcoming game. We know it will be difficult, but difficulties make us stronger. I believe in a positive outcome of the encounter for us.
For the first time in this qualification Sabah will play away from its own home stadium. The game will be held at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, where the Baku side is also assured of good support from the stands. By the start of the game everything will be behind us — all the expectations, calculations and talk. There will remain only the field and 90 minutes of real struggle, in which each of the teams will want to prove that it is ready to take the final step. So, for Sabah this is more than just a match against Hapoel. This is an evening that may remain in the club's history forever.
EMIN AHMADOV
