This week, the Azerbaijan Cup is going to get underway of its round of 16s. Gabala are going to face Mil Mughan tomorrow Thursday with the only match to get the foothold in the round of 8s. Although the nominal host is the team from Imishli, the game will be held in Gabala.

It is going to be the 9th cup experience of the red-black squad ever after 3 1/8 final matches, 3 1/4 games and 2 1/2 final performances. We are still staying amongst the top cup 8 in the last 3 years. 

The fixture is the 8th match of Gabala against a lower division team during their Premier League time. We won all the previous games as it is well evident also by the 22:2 goal difference. In the last 6 cup games, the first division teams were unable to score even one.

2006/07 12.09.2006 1/16 final Shahdagh (Guba) - Gilan (Gabala) 2:5

2006/07 16.10.2006 1/16 final Gilan (Gabala) - Shahdagh (Guba) 6:0

2007/08 26.09.2007 1/16 final MOIK (Baku) - Gabala 0:2

2007/08 03.10.2007 1/16 final Gabala - MOIK (Baku) 2:0

2010/11 08.12.2010 1/8 final Gabala - Neftchi-ISM (Baku) 2:0

2011/12 30.11.2011 1/8 final Gabala - Neftchala 3:0

2012/13 28.11.2012 1/8 final Gabala - Garadagh Lokbatan 2:0

Finishing their cup run unbeaten for the last 2 seasons, Gabala are keeping up the way with the last 6 games. The red-black side"s last loss dates back to 8 March 2011 when we defeated to Baku in away with the 1/4 final stage – 0:1.

It is also going to be the cup debut of our head coach Yuri Semin tomorrow after his informal first leg testing game and formal with the Topaz Premier League. The Russian skipper appears to be the 5th cup coach of Gabala ever. The team have been introduced to 33 cup games by 4 coaches.

Ramiz Mammadov  21   9   6   6   22-22   33

Faig Jabbarov         6    4   1   1   17-3      13

Fatih Kavlak            3    1   2   0     5-2        4

Tony Adams              3    1   1   1    2-1        4

Total:                       33 15 10  8  46-28     55

It is worth to remember Semin as a player winning the USSR cup triumph before taking the same award from 4 Russia cup tournaments.