Qäbälä v Krasnodar background
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Article summary
The curtain is coming down on Qäbäla's maiden group stage game with Krasnodar looking to achieve a victory in Azerbaijan to finish top of Group C.
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Article body
FC Krasnodar lead fellow qualifiers Borussia Dortmund on head-to-head record and will be sure of finishing top of Group C if they beat Qäbäla FK away.
Previous meetings
• Krasnodar won 2-1 when the sides met for the first time on matchday two. It was Krasnodar's maiden encounter with Azerbaijani opponents and Qäbäla's first game against a Russian team.
• Only five matches have been played between Azerbaijani and Russian clubs in UEFA competition, with the Russian sides having the better of them: W4 D1 L0 (W1 D1 L0 in Azerbaijan). Qäbäla became the first Azerbaijani team to score a UEFA goal against Russian opposition in that defeat in Krasnodar.
Form guide
• Krasnodar failed to get through to the round of 32 in their debut UEFA Europa League group stage campaign last season, but have made amends this time after coming through their first five Group C fixtures unbeaten.
• Qäbälä are making their UEFA group stage debut this term; this is just their second European campaign.
Trivia and links
• The journey from Krasnodar to Baku, where Qäbäla are playing their European home games, is a little over 1,000km.
• Krasnodar's Brazilian striker Ari turns 30 the day after the Qäbäla match.
• Qäbäla's Ukrainian forward Olexiy Antonov played for Krasnodar's local rivals FC Kuban Krasnodar from 2004 to 2007.
• Qäbäla's George Florescu (FC Torpedo Moskva, FC Alania Vladikavkaz, FC Dinamo Moskva), Magomed Mirzabekov (Torpedo Moskva, FC Torpedo-ZIL Moskva, FC Anji Makhachkala), Sergei Zenjov (Torpedo Moskva) and Vagif Javadov (FC Volga Nizhny-Novgorod) also have Russian league experience.
• Qäbälä and Rosenborg BK are the only clubs to have progressed all the way from first qualifying round to group stage in this season's competition.
The coaches
• Oleg Kononov has coached Krasnodar since 2013 and led his charges to an impressive third-place finish in Russia last term. This is his third group stage campaign – he advanced this far with FC Karpaty Lviv in 2010/11 and with Krasnodar last year.
• Qäbälä's Ukrainian coach Roman Hrygorchuk made his name in Latvia, winning three domestic titles with FK Ventspils from 2006 to 2008. He took the Qäbälä helm in December 2014 after a four-year spell at FC Chornomorets Odesa.
