Qarabag FK
Also written as Qarabag.
The club
Qarabag were founded in 1951 as Mahsul and took the name Qarabag in 1987. They play at the Azersun Arena in Baku, a small ground holding 5,800, and switch to the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium for European matches. The colours are black and white, which the club glosses as light and darkness. The nickname is Atlilar, the Horsemen. Tahir Gozel is the president and Gurban Gurbanov has been the manager for many years.
Recent seasons
Qarabag were runners-up in the Azerbaijan Premier League in 2020/21 and then won it four seasons in a row, in 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25. In 2025/26 they finished second with 69 points from 33 matches, 21 wins, 6 draws and 6 defeats, 71 goals scored and 27 conceded, and reached the semi-final of the Azerbaijan Cup. That second place is why they are in the Europa League path rather than the champions path this summer, and why their European season has already gone the way it has.
Across all competitions in 2025/26 they played 54 matches and won 31. Their European record that season was 8 wins, 1 draw and 7 defeats from 16 matches, 31 goals scored and 35 conceded.
Honours and landmarks
Qarabag have won the Azerbaijan Premier League 12 times and the Azerbaijan Cup 8 times. They were the first Azerbaijani club to reach the Champions League group stage, in 2017/18, and the first to reach the Champions League knockout phase play-offs, in 2025/26.
Notable scorelines
Record victory: 7-0 against Banga Gargzdai in the 2011/12 Europa League. Record defeat: 0-10 against Copenhagen in the 1998/99 Cup Winners' Cup, which remains among the heaviest defeats suffered by any club in European competition. The result the club will be remembered for is the 3-2 win away at Benfica on 16 September 2025 on the opening matchday of the Champions League league phase, when Qarabag were 2-0 down inside sixteen minutes, pulled one back on the half hour, levelled early in the second half and won it through Oleksiy Kashchuk.
European record
Qarabag have played 211 matches in UEFA competition with a win rate a shade under 38 per cent, which for a club from a small league is a substantial body of work. They reached the Champions League group stage for the first time in 2017/18, the first Azerbaijani club to do so, and have been a fixture in the Europa League and Conference League league phases in the years since.
The peak came in 2025/26. Qarabag came through Champions League qualifying, took the Benfica scalp on matchday one and went on to reach the knockout phase play-offs, the first Azerbaijani club ever to do so. The identity of their play-off opponents and the result of that tie were not confirmed from the sources read here.
This season has been a reversal. In the Europa League first qualifying round they beat Vestri of Iceland 6-0 on aggregate. In the second qualifying round they drew CSKA Sofia and could not score in 210 minutes: 0-0 in Baku on 23 July 2026, 0-0 after extra time in Sofia on 30 July, and CSKA won the shootout. That dropped Qarabag out of the Europa League and into the Conference League third qualifying round.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here. The club's own site could not be read. An Offside Plus preview of the Dynamo Kyiv first leg carries a match prediction from a Mahmud Gurbanov, who is not the manager Gurban Gurbanov and whose role the article does not state; nothing from it is reproduced here.
Right now (2026/27)
Gurban Gurbanov remains the manager. The summer rebuild has been large and long-term: Jaly Mouaddib arrived from Omonia Aradippou on 18 May 2026, Zakaria Sawo from Djurgarden on 24 May, Samuel Lobato from Portimonense on 16 June, Bruno Langa from UD Almeria on 17 June, goalkeeper Martin Zlomislic from HNK Rijeka on 21 June, Renaldo Cephas from Nizhny Novgorod on 25 June, Bence Varkonyi from Zalaegerszegi on 3 July and Cebrail Makreckis from Ferencvaros on 5 July. Every one of those contracts runs to the summer of 2029, Zlomislic's with an option for a further year. Fees were not disclosed. The main departure is Camilo Duran, sold to Celtic on 10 July 2026 for an undisclosed fee.
The Azerbaijan Premier League has not started yet. The opening round is spread across 14 to 17 August 2026, and Qarabag begin at home to Shamakhi at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium on 17 August at 19:30.
The tie they are in right now is the Conference League third qualifying round against Dynamo Kyiv, and Qarabag lost the first leg 1-0 at the Arena Lublin in Poland on 6 August 2026, Dynamo playing their home matches in Poland because of the war. Matviy Ponomarenko scored in the tenth minute. Qarabag were the better side for long stretches and had nothing to show for it: 66 per cent possession, five shots to two, and ten corners to none, with Kashchuk shooting straight at the goalkeeper from a tight angle and Mouaddib curling narrowly wide. The evening got worse when Cebrail Makreckis was sent off in the 90th minute. The return is at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium on 13 August 2026 at 20:00 local time, with Qarabag a goal down and a man suspended.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaraba%C4%9F_FK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Qaraba%C4%9F_FK_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Qaraba%C4%9F_FK_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Azerbaijan_Premier_League https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/757657/fk-qarabag-benfica https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/match/2045904--benfica-vs-qarabag/ https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401896233/cska-sofia-fk-qarabag https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/match/2048742--qarabag-vs-cska-sofia/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049162--dynamo-kyiv-vs-qarabag/ https://www.uefa.com/uefaconferenceleague/match/2049192--qarabag-vs-dynamo-kyiv/ https://fcdynamo.com/en/news/liga-konferencii-dinamo-karabax-10-zvit-pro-matc https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/2f3de435_dynamo_kyiv_beats/ https://report.az/en/football/qarabag-lose-to-dynamo-kyiv-in-conference-league-qualifier https://offsideplus.az/en/category/exclusive/32333/only-the-name-remains-gurbanov-predicts-qarabag-victory-over-dinamo https://www.azernews.az/sports/262238.html
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.