Two goals missed by Lunev and an assist from Miranchuk

“Qarabag” arouses increased interest among domestic fans for two reasons.

Firstly, it is the only team from the post-Soviet space in the current European Cup season that continues to fight.

And secondly, Andrey Lunev defends his goal.

Thanks also to his saves, the Agdam team took second place in the quartet, and knocked out Braga in the first round.

Now they again met with the goalkeeper’s former team, Bayer, and miraculously missed out on victory.

The Bundesliga leader failed in the first half.

The rotation made by Xabi Alonso also had an impact.

A number of leaders remained on the bench: Lukas Hradecki, Jeremy Frimpong, Granit Xhaka, Florian Wirtz and others.

The hosts, with the support of the crowded stands, did not sit back on the defensive, but turned on high pressure.

This tactic completely justified itself.

Before the break, the Azerbaijani squad repeatedly caught their opponents making mistakes and scored twice.

And the main character was Juninho.

First, he made an assist to Yassin Benzia, and then converted a one-on-one with Matej Kovar.

Alas, the second half turned out to be completely different from the first.

The guests got excited, and their coach made smart substitutions.

As a result, Leverkusen took over the overwhelming initiative.

For the time being, only Lunev maintained a comfortable score on the scoreboard.

But he, too, was powerless when Abdellah Zubir completed a pass from the center of the field actually to Wirtz’s move.

Having conceded, Gurban Gurbanov's team finally pressed against the goal and were punished for this in injury time, when another reserve, Schick, closed in Robert Andrich's cross.

Thus, Qarabag, in the second home match with Bayer in a row, allowed the opponent to achieve the desired result in the end.

Only in the group stage did the German team snatch victory in the 94th minute.

Now she has extended her unbeaten streak in all tournaments to 35 matches.

Another LE team with a Russian on its roster, Atalanta, was also content with a draw.

It’s gratifying that Alexey Miranchuk started and played for more than an hour.

In addition, shortly before the break, he provided an assist to Gianluca Scamacca.

After an unsuccessful exit from Franco Israel's goal, the midfielder could have shot himself, but was not greedy and rolled the ball to his partner.

At the same time, the Bergamos were extremely unlucky, because they hit the posts three times, and the referee canceled El Bilal Toure's goal with an overhead kick due to offside.

Liverpool's defeat

Meanwhile, another European giant, Liverpool, left no chance for Sparta on the road - 5:1.

Although the final score should not be misleading, since the opponents created a large number of approaches and delivered 30 shots between them, 17 of which were on target.

But the Merseysiders were more attentive to their chances.

Already in the sixth minute, Alexis Mac Allister earned a penalty and converted it himself.

And then it was the turn of Darwin Nunez, who this time pleased with his execution.

Even in the first half, the Uruguayan scored a double and extended his own scoring streak to four matches.

Moreover, the Uruguayan's first goal turned out to be the 1000th anniversary for the Reds, led by Jurgen Klopp.

Only Conor Bradley managed to beat Keevin Kelleher, who made seven saves.

The defender was brought on as a substitute during the break, and with his first touch he cut the ball into his own goal.

However, Luis Diaz responded to this with an accurate shot.

And in stoppage time Dominik Szoboszlai scored.

Even Mohamed Salah, who had returned to action, managed to score, but his goal was canceled due to offside.

Eight goals for Roma and Milan

If Atalanta failed to win, then the other two Italian teams continuing to play in the League of Legends confidently coped with their tasks.

I was especially surprised by the defeat inflicted by Roma on Brighton, because there was a feeling that the fans would see a bright, approximately equal confrontation.

In fact, the Romans left no chance for their opponents already in the first game at the Olimpico.

Paulo Dybala opened the scoring after a great throw from ex-Zenit midfielder Leandro Paredes.

The referee initially disallowed the goal for offside, but after consulting with the VAR assistants, he changed the decision.

And shortly before the break, Romelu Lukaku pushed his opponent and realized a one-on-one situation.

In the second half, Stefan El Shaarawy assisted Gianluca Mancini and Brian Cristante.

Thus, the “she-wolf” won the eighth victory in ten meetings under the leadership of Daniel De Rossi.

In turn, Milan turned out to be stronger than Slavia.

However, the Prague residents can only complain about themselves, because even in the middle of the first half, El-Hadji Malik Diouf received a straight red card for a rough tackle on Christian Pulisic’s ankle.

Soon Olivier Giroud opened the scoring.

David Doudera literally restored the status quo in the next attack, but shortly before the break Teyani Reynders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek gave the Rossoneri a comfortable lead.

In the second half, Ivan Shrantz reduced the gap, but Pulisic put an end to it in the end.

Aubameyang's double and record

Another confrontation between representatives of the top 5 leading national championships of the Old World also ended in defeat.

Villarreal failed to do anything against Marseille and never even shot Pau Lopez on target.

Olympic, on the contrary, with the support of the home stands, converted almost all the available chances.

Moreover, the outcome of the confrontation was decided in the first half.

First, Jordan Veret was allowed to head in a cross from the right edge.

And then Yerson Mosquera, trying to interrupt the cross, sent the ball into the net.

The problems did not end there for the Colombian.

Just before the break, he brought down Amin Arita in his own penalty area.

The referee did not call a foul, but after watching the replay, he still pointed to the spot.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang confidently converted the penalty kick.

And after an hour, the Gabonese scored a double, beautifully throwing a shell behind the collar of the unfortunate Pepe Reina.

Thanks to this, the forward not only took clear first place in the sniper race of this season's tournament, but with 32 goals he became the top scorer in the history of the Europa League/UEFA Cup, ahead of Henrik Larsson.

Di Maria's second youth

Meanwhile, another eminent veteran, Angel Di Maria, reminded of himself in Portugal.

It was solely thanks to his efforts that Benfica escaped defeat in the home match with Rangers - 2:2.

At the end of the first half, the hosts earned a penalty, which was converted by the Argentine.

Moreover, the referee team had to study the replay for several minutes to determine: John Souttar played with his hand in his own penalty area on the corner.

The experienced forward coolly outwitted Jack Butland, rolling the ball down the middle.

However, already in the fifth minute of stoppage time Dujon Sterling again brought the Scottish team ahead.

But in the second half, Di Maria's set-piece led to an own goal from Connor Goldson.

The defender, who had no opponents next to him, sent the ball into the net like a real forward.

The world champion, at 36 years old, is having an amazing season.

In the Portuguese Championship alone, he scored eight goals and assisted his partners seven times.

In total, he scored a total of 24 points for performance (14 + 9) in all competitions.

Incredible match in Budapest

And the most striking thing in the Conference League, of course, was the confrontation between Maccabi and Fiorentina in Budapest, in which seven goals were scored.

Moreover, the beginning did not foretell problems for the Italian grandee.

Already in the second minute, Mbala N'Zola headed the ball into the net.

However, the squad from Haifa did not think of giving up and even before the break they not only regained their balance, but also took the lead.

After an hour, Lucas Beltran equalized the score with a neat shot from outside the penalty area.

Having scored, the nominal guests seized a serious advantage, but instead of building on their success, they conceded again.

Anan Khalaili ran into a counterattack and accurately shot into the long range.

However, the outcome at the Bozhik Arena turned out to be discouraging for the Israeli team.

To begin with, Rolando Mandrake returned to the status quo.

Then the second mustard plaster was shown to Shaw.

The end was set in the 95th minute, when substitute Antonin Barak burst into the penalty area and beautifully curled a shot into the top corner.

Shortly before the final whistle, Daniil Lesovoy appeared on the field for Maccabi, having moved to the new championship from Dynamo on loan.

However, the Russian winger was not memorable.

In total, he played six matches for the new team.

Dull zeros in Amsterdam

But the meeting between Ajax and Aston Villa was frankly disappointing.

One got the impression that the venerable opponents would delight the spectators with a flurry of attacks and goals.

However, expectations were not confirmed.

Moreover, they only hit the opposing goal three times.

In the opening, a promising chance was missed by Moussa Diaby, whose shot from the half-circle of the penalty area was saved by Dianth Ramai.

The Amsterdam team responded with Brian Brobbey going almost one-on-one with Emiliano Martinez.

But the defender hanging on the attacker’s shoulders did not allow him to shoot accurately.

And after the hour, the Argentine made his most memorable save, parrying Kenneth Taylor's point-blank shot at close range.

But in the end two red cards were shown at once.

To begin with, Ezri Konsa received the second yellow card for disrupting the attack.

And then Tristan Goyer, who also had a yellow card, made a dangerous tackle from behind at his opponent’s feet.