A week ago, Qarabag and Dundalk played out a 1-1 draw in the Champions League 2nd qualifying round first leg in Ireland. On Wednesday evening the pair meet again at the Azersun Arena for the second leg, with the tie finely balanced at 1-1.
Qarabag will believe that they have a slight advantage after scoring the away goal. However, this is the sort of close tie that could go either way, so the Azerbaijani’s have to avoid complacency.
The fact that the home side has now won just one of their last five games in the Champions League also means that they will need to be on their guard when it comes to taking progression to the next round for granted.
Qarabag have been hard to beat in the early stages of this competition in recent years, losing just once in their last nine matches in Europe’s elite competition. Drawing matches has been a problem, though, as five of those nine matches have finished all square.
Dundalk will head into this second leg knowing they still have a good chance to progress to the play-off stage of the competition. However, the visitors will need to improve if they are to progress beyond the current round, as they have failed to win any of their last seven matches in the Champions League in 90 minutes.
Their recent ties in Europe’s elite competition have been very tight, as their last seven matches have produced under 2.5 goals after 90 minutes.
One big negative for the Irish team heading into this clash is that they have never won an away game in the Champions League in six attempts. The visitors would not necessarily have to win this clash to progress, as a high-scoring draw would also take them through.
The first leg was tight and Forebet predicts that the second leg will also finish in a low-scoring draw, leaving extra time and possibly penalty kicks to decide which team heads through to the play-off stage.