Neftchi PFC beats Rapid, Qarabag FC draws

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Neftchi PFC has won Austrian Rapid in the first home game of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League, Azernews reports.

The goals for Azerbaijan were scored by Ataa Jaber and Kenny Sayef.

The return match between the teams will be in a week in Austria.

It is worth noting that the winner of this pair in the playoffs will meet with the strongest of the pair Konyaspor (Turkiye) - Vaduts (Liechtenstein) games.

Meanwhile, the match between Qarabag FC and Ferencvaros (Hungary) ended in a draw.

Hungarian club player Franck Boli opened the score in the 17th minute. Furthermore, Qarabag's Owusu Kwabena scored a goal for his team.

In the 3rd minute of added time of the first half, Ibrahima Wadji scored another goal for Qarabag FC. However, the goal was not counted by the VAR system and the match ended in a draw.

The return game will be on August 9 in Budapest.

The UEFA Champions League is UEFA's elite club competition with top clubs across the continent playing for the right to be crowned European champions.

Introduced in 1955 as the European Cup, it has expanded over the years with over 70 football clubs.

The number of teams of each association that enters the UEFA Champions League is based on the UEFA coefficients of the member associations.

These scores are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League seasons.

Qualifying starts in the summer with three rounds and then a play-off takes place before 32 teams begin the group stage starting in September.