Vali Gasimov: "The departure of some players affected "Zira"

"The departure of some players negatively affected Zira's performance in the match against Hajduk." Sport24.az reports that former Azerbaijani national team player Vali Gasimov said this in his statement to Report, while evaluating the performance of our clubs in the UEFA Conference League.

The 56-year-old expert said that the European Cup night was successful for the Azerbaijani teams: "In general, last night can be considered successful for Azerbaijani football. Except for Zira, our other two clubs showed excellent performance. Earlier, Qarabag also advanced to the next stage in the Champions League. Looking at Zira's match, this team did not actually perform badly either. It's just that the draw was a little unlucky. In my opinion, Zira got a strong opponent. In addition, the departure of some players from the team also negatively affected Zira's performance."

The expert also expected Sabah to win the return match against Petrocub (Moldova): "We all knew that the opponent was not at the level of Sabah. I just didn't think that so many goals would be scored in the first half. The next opponent will be a representative of Bulgaria. I think that if Sabah repeats the game they showed against Petrocub, they can beat Levski."

Gasimov emphasized that Araz-Nakhchivan played magnificently against Aris in their trip to Greece: "Elmar Bakhshiyev's team surprised everyone in a positive way. Araz-Nakhchivan fought to the end on the field. Although they were debuting in the European Cups. It is not easy to defeat a team like Aris based on the results of two games. In the third qualifying round, they will play against the Cypriot club Omonia. It is not an impassable opponent. Araz-Nakhchivan showed that they can play against teams at the level of Aris and Omonia."

It should be noted that yesterday, in the second qualifying round of the Conference League, Zira lost to Hajduk (Croatia) 1:2 and stopped the fight. Sabah, who won 4:1 against Petrocub in their home field, and Araz-Nakhchivan, who drew (2:2) with Aris in their away match, advanced to the third qualifying round.