Gabala – PAOK (Greece) – 0:0
UEFA Europa League, Group Stage, C Group opener
Date: Thursday, 17 September
Kick-off: 8:00 P.M. AZST
Venue: Bakcell Arena, Baku
Referee: Referee: Javier Estrada (Spain)
Assistant referees: Miguel Martínez , Teodoro Sobrino (both Spanish)
Additional assistant referees: Alejandro Hernandez, Santiago Jaime (both Spanish)
Fourth official:
Diego Barbero Sevilla (Spain)
UEFA referee observer: Vladimir Antonov (Moldova)
Venue: Bakcell Arena, Baku
UEFA member: Miroslav Rishka (Poland)
Bookings: Garry Rodrigues, 31, Georgios Tzavellas, 45, Dodo, 69, Aleksey Antonov, 90
Stoppage time: I part: 2 min.; II part: 4 min.

Appearing in the UEFA group stage for their first-ever, Gabala met PAOK from Greece in the C Group first leg. The red-black side reached their clear run of home matches up to the 5th.

The pace of the game started by mutual attacks and the visitors set the first threat on the show with Stelios Kitsiou”s pass from a promising position to Dimitris Pelkas being off the target.

Then Roman Grigorchuk”s men gained the momentum with some attacks in the early minutes when Ricardinho”s inch-perfect shot from 22-meter position was denied by the keeper.

The home side gave another trouble to the other end with Arif Dashdamirov failing to score after a cool free-kick.
Then in the 19th minute, Vojislav Stankovic gave a great save to Gabala deflecting PAOK”s player coming one on one with the red-black goal keeper.

Gabala”s Aleksey Antonov, Ermin Zets, Sergei Zenjov and Dodo launched some more inroads into the Greek defensive line but they could not set up occasion.

The Grigorchuk side went too close to opening the scoring just before the half-time, when Zenyov was fouled near the box on 19 minutes that led to off-target free-kick by Ricardinho.

After the restart, Gabala”s new transfer Fakundo Pereyra came on his debut. The red-black team looked faster, on 52nd minutes, with Zenjov failing on a perfect occasion after a good shot by Dodo from the right.

Then the guests tried for feedback with Dimitar Berbatov”s accurate pass to Robert Mak in the closest position, but Dmytro Bezotosny held on clear.

Although some more mutual attacks, the scoring stayed in a deadlock and the match ended in a goalless draw.

It is worth to notice another match of the C group between Borussia Dortmund (Germany) and Krasnodar (Russia) that finished by 2:1 in the favour of the home side.

Gabala line-up:
22. Dmytro Bezotosny
3. Vojislav Stankovic
15. Vitali Vernidub
20. Ricardinho
21. Arif Dashdamirov
88. David Meza Colli
10. Dodo (c)
(66. Samir Zargarov, 83)
19. Aleksey Gai
9. Sergei Zenjov
69. Aleksey Antonov
7. Ermin Zec
(32. Fakundo Pereyra, 46)

Subs.:
33. David Pietrzkevic
4. Elvin Jamalov
6. Rashad Sadigov
8. Mahammad Mirzabayov
70. Vagif Javadov
Head coach: Roman Grigorchuk

PAOK line-up:
25. Robin Olsen
15. Migel Vitor
20. Ricardo Costa
31. Georgios Tzavellas
70. Stelios Kitsiou
6. Aleksandros Tsiolis
11. Robert Mak
24. Garry Rodrigues
52. Erik Sabo
(9. Jairo da Silva, 85)
77. Dimitris Pelkas
(7. Eyal Golasa, 76)
33. Stefanos Athanasiadis (c)
(10. Dimitar Berbatov, 59)

Subs.:
71. Panagiotis Glykos
13. Stelios Malezas
22. Dimitris Konstantinidis
21. Charis Charisis

Head coach: Igor Tudor