Knockout in Baku — Qarabağ falls to Newcastle When home walls don’t help

Last night, nearly 30,000 fans witnessed the Champions League playoff match between Qarabağ and Newcastle live at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium. Judging by the outcome, this was likely the last home match for our team in this season’s Champions League. After such a humiliating defeat (1–6), Qarabağ’s chances of overcoming Newcastle are about as likely as Azerbaijani figure skaters becoming Olympic champions — in other words, virtually nonexistent.

Of course, despite optimistic predictions surrounding this match, domestic fans knew they were mostly voicing hope rather than expectation. To make it a reality, Gurban Gurbanov’s squad would have needed to perform far beyond their limits. But they didn’t just fail to exceed expectations — they couldn’t even stay on their feet.

The English club simply knocked out Qarabağ. And I’m not the only one saying it — Gurban Gurbanov himself admitted it in his post-match flash interview. Knocked out hard and mercilessly — already in the first half, five unanswered goals were sent past Kochalski, four of them scored by Anthony Gordon, who, with 10 goals, became Newcastle’s top scorer in this season’s Champions League.

Moreover, Gordon became only the second player in UEFA Champions League history to score four goals in the first half of a match. The previous record belonged to Luiz Adriano, who achieved this feat for Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk against Belarusian BATE in October 2014.

Newcastle themselves became only the second team in Champions League playoff history to lead a match by five or more goals at halftime. The first was Bayern Munich, who beat Porto 5–0 in the quarterfinals in April 2015.

We can talk all we want about biased refereeing, the wrongly awarded first penalty against us, or the penalty that wasn’t given to Newcastle. But all of that would be nothing more than excuses. By any measure, the English club delivered a crushing defeat to the leader of Azerbaijani football (even if they are currently second in the domestic league) — and on their own turf.

All the talk about the fan being the team’s 12th player, about the home crowd giving an advantage, turned out, after such a powerless and humiliating defeat, to be nothing more than empty words. 1–6 is not just an unfortunate loss — it’s a painful humiliation in front of your own friends, family, friends’ relatives, and well-meaning supporters alike.

The only player in Qarabağ who can truly claim he has no reason to be blamed in this match wasn’t even Elvin Jafarguliyev, who became the first Azerbaijani to score in a Champions League playoff. It was goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski, whose absolutely incredible saves kept the score from reaching double digits. On this night, there’s no doubt the Polish keeper was more “Azerbaijani” than all of Qarabağ’s Azerbaijani players combined. It felt as if, for once, the only Qarabağ player on the pitch was the goalkeeper. Mateusz was phenomenal, and there’s essentially no fault of his in this inglorious defeat and the six goals conceded.

Of course, the fact that Qarabağ reached this level — a feat still a dream for other Azerbaijani clubs — is a huge achievement. But to play so disgracefully at this stage of such a prestigious tournament is simply unacceptable. Isn’t that right, gentlemen?

By Vugar Vugarli, exclusively for Caliber.Az