The city of Baku will have hosted three European football ties this week with the third being Athletic Club’s visit to play Inter this evening. Yesterday Qarabağ FK lost to Scottish champions, Celtic in the Champions League second preliminary round and this evening Gabala FC take on Apollon at the same time Inter Baku face Athletic in the Azerbaijani capital.
Celtic, Apollon and Athletic all shared the same Flame Towers hotel, one of the three skyscrapers which grace the Baku skyline.
Azerbaijan is known as the land of fire and their footballing ambitions in Europe may be in flames this evening after these two Europa League qualifiers. Gabala take a 1-1 draw from the first leg against the Cypriot side but Athletic will be hoping that their 2-0 advantage from the first leg will be enough of a cushion in seeing the Basque side through to the next stage of the competition.
Yesterday, Valverde’s side trained at the Shafa Stadium where the temperature was 30 degrees in the shade but had a real feel of 40 degrees with the humidity level factored in. Baku coach, Svanadze, stated in the pre-match press conference that: “We have little chance of qualifying but I see hope”.