RDo you remember the summer of 2008? It was then that Pep Guardiola was named coach of Barcelona’s first team, Jürgen Klopp arrived at Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea opted for a certain Luiz Felipe Scolari. Since then, the west London club has had 12 different permanent managers. Qarabag, who Liverpool face on Wednesday in the Champions League, have one: Gurban Gurbanov, also known as Azerbaijani Sir Alex Ferguson.
Gurbanov has become one of the world’s longest-serving elite coaches and has built a remarkable empire, turning the club into a force to be reckoned with in European competitions.
This season is destined to be the best. As Qarabag visits Anfield on the last day of the league phase of the Champions League, they have a good chance of qualifying for the next phase. They are in 18th place with 10 points, one ahead of European powers such as Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven. Even a loss can be enough to stay in the playoff spots.
Wednesday’s match will be Qarabag’s 204th in Europe and Gurbanov has been in charge of 190 of them. This is mainly due to the fact that before his arrival it was a rather modest club, even by Azeri standards. In fact, his predecessor, Rasim Kara, left a few days before the start of the 2008-09 season after receiving a better offer from Khazar Lankaran, who were considered a much stronger team.
Gurbanov was tipped as an urgent replacement, but expectations were low. “He was a young coach and local coaches didn’t get much credit in those days anyway. He started from scratch and wasn’t supposed to survive on the job,” says Maksim Medvedev, who played for Qarabag between 2006 and 2024.
“But we soon realized that he is an excellent coach. We won the cup in his first season and then managed to beat Rosenborg in the qualifying round of the Europa League. Then the whole adventure began. Gurbanov received all the credit in the management world and was able to work without interventions from above. He built the team gradually,” adds Medvedev.
Qarabag, however, had to wait until 2014 to win Gurbanov’s first Azeri championship title, and only the second in his history. After that, they became a machine and won the league 10 of the last 11 seasons. Meanwhile, progress has also been made in Europe. They have appeared regularly in the Europa League group stage and qualified for the Champions League proper in 2017.
The success of Qarabag is very important for Azerbaijan also from a political point of view. The club was originally based in Aghdam, a city in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region that was completely destroyed during the war against Armenia. It returned to Azerbaijani control in 2020 as part of the agreement that ended the conflict and is now being rebuilt.
Qafqazinfo.az journalist Elsevar Mammadov explains: “According to the late Qarabag president Abdolbari Gozal, Azerbaijan’s president Heydar Aliyev asked him to take power at the beginning of the century to save the club. Gozal promised him that he would make significant investments. He was in charge of Azersun Holding, a very large company that produces most of the country’s food.”
Qarabag had the money but, unlike many of its competitors, it did not invest in big foreign names. Gurbanov’s strategy has been to build a collective that is greater than the sum of its parts.
“We never hire big stars,” Medvedev says. “For Gurbanov, all players are equal. He explains his demands to newcomers, and only those who accept them can be part of the team. During our time together, he never had major conflicts with anyone. The coach is strict and emphasizes discipline, but he is very fair. He always defends his players, helps them and gives them professional and personal advice. Everyone loves and respects him.”
Record.az editor-in-chief Kenan Mastaliyev adds: “Qarabag can afford to make expensive signings, but Gurbanov would never destroy the balance he has in the team. For him, only the team matters. He is patient and believes in his philosophy. He chooses players who fit the system, and not the other way around.”
When asked to describe Gurbanov’s philosophy, Medvedev says it is based on ownership and proactivity. “With Gurbanov, we aspired to control the game and have as many scoring opportunities as possible,” he says. “We were never afraid to make mistakes. We will not change our style even against the strongest rivals. This was especially true after we won 3-0 against Legia Warsaw in 2020. Since then, we knew that we were capable of beating anyone and we played even more attacking football.”
The results support that approach, as Qarabag has been involved in several high-scoring matters in Europe. Two years ago, they won 4-2 in Braga in the Europa League and then almost beat Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen in the last 16, drawing 2-2 at home before losing dramatically 3-2 in Germany. Last season they beat Ludogorets 7-2 in Bulgaria.
This season, Qarabag qualified for the league stage by beating Ferencvaros 5-4 on aggregate. They came back from 2-0 down to beat Benfica 3-2 in Lisbon, then beat Copenhagen 2-0 and drew 2-2 in an entertaining match against Chelsea. Last week they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2.
Before Gurbanov, Azerbaijan’s most important person in football history was Tofiq Bahramov, the linesman who scored Geoff Hurst’s goal in the 1966 World Cup final (they named their national stadium after him), but now the Qarabag coach is far ahead.
“Gurbanov is a legend in Azerbaijan. He achieved things that seemed impossible,” says Mammadov, while Medvedev adds: “He is our own Azerbaijani Alex Ferguson. He will stay in Qarabag as long as he wants and then he will retire.”
For now, however, he is aiming for a famous victory at Anfield to add to his long list of achievements.
