Match Report
On paper the standings were lopsided — Sabah 1st with 78 points, Neftçi 3rd with 59, 19 apart. Per game in the league, Sabah were scoring 2.27 and conceding 0.76, Neftçi 1.73 and 0.97, against a competition average of 1.29 goals per team per game.
Neftçi entered with three wins in a row, having scored in 9 consecutive games.
13 meetings are on record — 6 won by Sabah, 2 by Neftçi, 5 drawn, at 1.62 goals per meeting. Hosting has counted for little in this fixture — the home side has won only 23% of those meetings. The fixture trends low-scoring: over two goals in just 23% of the meetings.
The match was played at Bank Respublika Arena (capacity 13,000). On the scoreboard, it was 1-1 at the break; 1 second-half goal set the final 1-2.
Goal scorers
Sabah: Aleksey Isayev (3') · Neftçi: Andriy Shtohrin (9'), Ifeanyi Mathew (70')
Key stats
Possession: Sabah 50% · Neftçi 50% · Total shots: 4-5 · On target: 1-2 · Corners: 5-4