Yesterday, "Sabah" lost to "Levski" with a score of 0:2 (the first match 0:1) in their home match within the framework of the 3rd qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League and stopped fighting in the European Cups.
Idman.biz reports that Aslan Karimov, a former midfielder of the Azerbaijani national team and a well-known football expert, gave an interview to Fanat.Az regarding the "owls"' last game.
According to him, it became difficult for "Sabah" to come back after conceding the first goal: "I said before the game that "Sabah" would have scoring opportunities in the second match against "Levski". Since the guest team's flank players were fast, our representatives' wingers could not succeed in one-on-one episodes. The opponent did not allow our flank attackers to do anything. It was difficult to come back after conceding the first goal. "Sabah" completely lost the fight in the center of the field in the first half. Valdas Dambrauskas considered it appropriate to play with 5 defenders. When our flank defenders wanted to step forward and meet the ball, they immediately made a long pass behind them. Our third central defender was afraid to insure the flank, because he knew that another football player would "open up" behind him from the center. In one of these episodes recorded in the first half, Steve Solvet was late and received a yellow card. This was one of the main problems of "Sabah" until the break. Although we went out with a different formation in the second half, the guests gradually took the advantage in the center of the field again, and the defeat became inevitable. Even if we sometimes got the ball, they controlled this zone.
Some points will need to be revisited. Questions regarding the playmaker position in "Sabah" remain open. It is true that they played with a system that does not benefit from a football player distributing the ball in the center of the game, but there is still a need for such a football player."
Idman.biz