Dnipro v Qarabağ background
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Article summary
With goals proving hard to come by in UEFA Europa League Group F, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and FK Qarabağ will be eager to get off the mark on matchday three.
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FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk will tackle FK Qarabağ for the first time with both sides on the hunt for their first UEFA Europa League Group F goals.
Form guide
• The only previous UEFA club competition tie between Azerbaijani and Ukrainian sides ended in a 5-0 aggregate win for FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih against FK Shamkir in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup qualifying round.
• Dnipro have gone three games without a European goal since a 2-1 victory against HNK Hajduk Split in the first leg of this season's UEFA Europa League play-offs. Those were the only goals they have scored in six European matches this term (having lost 2-0 on aggregate to FC København in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round).
• Qarabağ have yet to score in Group F and have not won in their last three European away fixtures (D1 L2).
• FC Internazionale Milano are the only side to have found the net on the opening two matchdays in Group F.
Trivia and links
• Dnipro midfielder Serhiy Kravchenko spent the 2005/06 season at Qarabağ; his side finished fifth in the table and won the Azerbaijani Cup, though he did not play in the final.
• Dnipro's Georgian midfielder Jaba Kankava (2010-11) and Croatian international Mladen Bartulović (2009-10) played alongside Qarabağ's Albanian international Ansi Agolli in Ukraine with Kryvbas.
• Qarabağ's Macedonian midfielder Muarem Muarem turns 26 on the eve of the Dnipro game.
• Qarabağ's 2-0 loss at Inter on matchday two was their 50th UEFA club competition game; their record in those fixtures is W19 D12 L19.
• Qarabağ are only the second Azeri club to feature in this group stage; Neftçi PFK recorded three draws and three defeats in their pioneering 2012/13 group stage campaign, so Qarabağ could yet become the first Azerbaijani team to win a UEFA group stage match.
The coaches
• Dnipro coach since 2014, Myron Markevych started out as a midfielder with hometown club FC Karpaty Lviv, and while his playing career was not a huge success, he served Karpaty in four spells as a coach before a lengthy stint at FC Metalist Kharkiv earned him a reputation for attacking football. He briefly coached Ukraine in 2010.
• Qarabağ coach Gurban Gurbanov is Azerbaijan's all-time top scorer at international level with 14 goals. He played in Russia but enjoyed perhaps his most celebrated years with Neftçi, where he later started out as a coach. In charge at Qarabağ since 2008, he led the club to their second title – after a 21-year wait – last season.
