Football worthy of a leader
December 23, 2025 00:00
Misli’s 16th tour of the Azerbaijan Football Premier League, which was the last in 2025, ended with one match on Monday.
As azerisport.com reports, the home team of the same name and the Baku “Sabah” met in the final game of the year in Sumgayit. On the eve of this meeting, the guests lost the lead in the standings, which they gained a few days earlier thanks to a victory in the rescheduled 1st round match over Qarabag (2:1). Therefore, this game with the “chemists” was especially important, since if they won, Valdas Dambrauskas’s team would end the year as the unofficial “winter champion”. And they achieved their goal.
It hasn’t been easy for anyone with Sumgayit this season. And even Qarabag was beaten in the first round. However, in the match against Sabah, Sasa Ilic’s team was unrecognizable. The first thing that stood out was the lack of organization when playing without the ball and, in particular, when defending. The home team, to put it simply, did not have a good game in these aspects. The reason was fatigue at the end of the year, or whether the opponent simply forced me to make such mistakes, or all together – it’s difficult to say for sure. But it is also clear that Sabah performed much better – not perfect, just better.
First of all, the “owls” attacked more coherently and purposefully. And of course, this could not but result in scored goals. In the middle of the first half, Veljko Simic scored, and he then doubled the lead at the beginning of the second. And as soon as the playing time reached an hour, the “chemists” kind of reached the climax of a bad day – they sent the ball into their own goal. Keffel was unlucky in this episode. And although just six minutes later Sumgayit managed to reduce the gap after a precise hit by Ronaldo Vazquez, it was just a fly in the ointment.
In general, Sabah deservedly earned another three points, thanks to which they returned to the top of the table. The guests were more collected, acted more clearly, played coherently – they showed football worthy of the championship leader. Now Sabah goes to the winter break in first place, which means that in the new year much more will be expected from the team than it has been so far. “Sumgayit”, having shown an incomprehensible game, dropped one line lower due to not the best additional indicators, losing 4th place to “Turan-Tovuz”. True, the two of them have an equal number of points, and the one in front, “Zire,” is only one point ahead. Thus, we say goodbye to the MPL, and the MPL to this year, and in a month we will return to it.
MPL
16th round
SUMGAYYT – SABAH – 1:3 (0:1)
Simic, 26 (0:1), 50 (0:2), Keffel, 60-aut. (0:3), Vasquez, 66 (1:3)
Sumgayit, Mekhti Huseynzade stadium. The main judge is Tural Gurbanov.
Five games of the tour took place earlier: “Kapaz” – “Turan-Tovuz” – 0:2, “Karvan-Yevlakh” – “Neftchi” – 1:2, “Zire” – “Imishli” – 0:0, “Gabala” – “Garabagh” – 1:2, “Araz-Nakhchivan” – “Shamakhi” – 2:0.
| Team | AND | IN | N | P | M | O |
| Sabah | 16 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 29-9 | 37 |
| Karabakh | 16 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 32-10 | 36 |
| Cumin | 16 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 23-15 | 28 |
| Turan-Tovuz | 15 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 19-12 | 27 |
| Sumgait | 16 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 26-21 | 27 |
| Araz-Nakhkhyvan | 16 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 25-25 | 26 |
| Shamakh | 16 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 18-18 | 20 |
| Oil | 16 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 20-17 | 20 |
| Imishli | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 14-19 | 17 |
| Kapaz | 16 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 11-39 | 9 |
| Gabala | 15 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 11-21 | 8 |
| Karvan-Yevlah | 16 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 12-34 | 6 |
Bombers:
9 – J.-L. Mikkels (Sabah)
7 – Bayramov (Karabakh), Simakala (AN), Simich (Sabah)
6 – Rossi (Shamahy), Sambu (Neftchi)
Imran Huseynov
