Hungarian champions and cup winners Ferencvaros hosted Azerbaijani champions Qarabag at home after a 1-1 draw in Baku in the third qualifying round of the Champions League. In the Groupama Arena, head coach Stanislav Cherchesov made two changes to the starting eleven, which consisted of Dibusz - Botka, Thelander, Kovacevic, Civic - Esiti, Laidouni - Zachariassen, Tokmac, Traoré - Boli.

First half

In the first minute Qarabag got into a situation, the ball did not hit the goal, but the scoreboard showed that it was a foul. A minute later, the visitors attacked from the right, but Thelander headed to a corner.

In the seventh minute, Kovacevic made a mistake after a forward cross, but the Bosnian defender corrected his mistake with a superb sliding tackle inside the penalty area. Seconds later, however, Zoubir wrote himself up on the scoresheet (0-1). There was almost an immediate reply, but Boli's shot was saved with great bravery by the visiting goalkeeper and Zachariassen's header was also blocked.

As we moved closer to the middle sections of the first half, the pace of the game became slower. Qarabag were in control of the game, they operated mainly with quick counter-attacks from the defence, but our defence sorted themselves out and cleared the balls. In the 29th minute, Tokmac went one-on-one and shot inside the box, but Magomedaliyev got down to head the attempt into the long bottom corner.

Three minutes later, Dibusz was kept busy again, but the Hungarian goalkeeper also made a confident save. In the 38th minute, Laidouni's soft cross was headed in by Thelander, but our Danish defender's attempt missed the target. Five minutes before the end of the first half Tokmac was in position, but his shot was blocked by the visiting defence. In the final minutes, Dibusz made two great saves, and it was no wonder that the Ferencváros crowd immediately chanted the name of our captain.

The first half was full of chances for both sides, the visitors took the first one and went into the break with a 1-0 lead.

Second half

There were no substitutions on either side at the break, with the same 22 players running out on the pitch after the turnaround.

The first serious chance of the second half fell was created by the visitors, but Kady's left-footed curler missed Dibusz' goal. We made two changes in the 51st minute: Vécsei and Knoester came on, while Esiti and Kovacevic left the pitch.

In the 54th minute, Kady moved towards the baseline, shot the ball into the middle where Wadji arrived and punched the ball into the goal (0-2). Four minutes later, Qarabag made a change with Richard Almeida replacing Marko Jankovic, and in the 61st minute, Boli was replaced by Ryan Mmaee, who returned from injury.

A minute later, Civic crossed a free kick into the middle, Thelander came on with great pace but his header was off target. Halfway through the half, a right-wing corner was cleared short by Civic and Almeida fired straight at him, Dibusz making a great save.

In the 75th minute, after a nice counter-attack, Laidouni passed to Ryan Mmaeen, but the Moroccan striker could not shoot, the visiting defence freed. With 12 minutes to go, the game was decided: Wadji scored again after a counter-attack (0-3).

Traoré's close-range strike in the 86th minute (1-3) brought back some hopes, but there was not enough time left to equalise, the 3-1 defeat meant that Qarabag won the tie 4-2 on aggregate and progressed. Our team will continue in the UEFA Europa League play-offs.