Matchday. "Metalist 1925" - "Qarabag". Match No. 3. Summer training 2025

July 2 at 18:30 (17:30 local time). Austria, Sankt Ulrich am Pillersee, "Sportplatz St. Ulrich" stadium.  Friendly match #3. Summer training camp 2025.

Watch the match broadcast on the YouTube channel "Metalist 1925":

Approaching the end of the second week of preparation in Austria for the start of the UPL, "Metalist 1925" is heading into the third friendly match. The next opponent is the prestigious and ambitious club from Azerbaijan - "Qarabag". While this will be the third friendly match for "Metalist 1925" during the training camp, it will be the first match for the current champions of Azerbaijan: "Metalist 1925" will open a series of 3-4 friendly matches for them during the training camp in Austria. In just two weeks, the Azerbaijanis will start their Champions League qualification campaign - just like the previous opponent of "Metalist 1925", "Panathinaikos".

Achievements: "Qarabag" is the record holder in Azerbaijan for the number of championship titles won: they have achieved this 12 times. They have also won the national cup 6 times. The club has dominated Azerbaijani football for the past 10 years, consistently participating in European competitions - and with good reason. "Qarabag" is the only team from Azerbaijan that has played in the group stage of the Champions League. Last year, the team participated in the group stage of the Europa League.

Geography: the club represents the city of Agdam in the Agdam district of Azerbaijan, but for many years, they did not play matches there as this territory was not under the country's control for a long time. However, in 2023, "Qarabag" played a match in their hometown for the first time since the early 1990s. Although the majority of home matches are still held in the capital - Baku.

Head coach: the club is led by 53-year-old Azerbaijani specialist - Gurban Gurbanov. He is truly a legendary figure for "Qarabag", as he has been managing the team since 2008 - for 17 consecutive years! Unprecedented dedication for modern football. All the main successes of the club in recent years are associated with him. In 2017-2018, he combined work at the club and with the national team.

Transfermarkt: the well-known portal evaluates the current squad of "Qarabag" at 24.4 million euros - exactly 10 million more than the assessment of the squad of "Metalist 1925". Immediately 14 players in the "Qarabag" squad are players of their national teams. It is understandable that most of them represent the national team of Azerbaijan, but there are also players from Montenegro, Poland, Albania, and even Cape Verde.

Among them is Rustam Akhmedzade, who played 10 matches for the Azerbaijan national team. Although he was born and raised in Ukraine, he gained his football education and started his career there. He joined "Qarabag" in 2021.

Ukrainian U-20 national team player Ramik Hadzhiev, on the contrary, was born in Azerbaijan. However, when he was two years old, his family moved to Ukraine, to Kharkiv. And today he will play against Azerbaijanis in the squad of "Metalist 1925".

Also, there is another Ukrainian in the "Qarabag" squad - Oleksiy Kashchuk. He is fourth in his club in terms of transfer value - 1.8 million euros.

According to Transfermarkt's estimates, the most expensive player of "Qarabag" is Brazilian legionnaire Cadi Borges. His estimated transfer value is 2.5 million euros. The same value is attributed to Cape Verdean Leandro Andrade. The third in value is 21-year-old Azerbaijani forward Nariman Akhundzade (2 million euros).

Among the summer newcomers of the club, it is worth noting two Brazilians: midfielder Pedro Beckallo from "Palmeiras" and right-back Dani Bolt, who moved from the Portuguese "Torrense".

You can read about the transfers of "Metalist 1925" that have already taken place here and here.

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