Next week, the second half of the 2023/24 season will start in the Azerbaijan Premier League.
Idman.biz reports that the 3rd round of the championship will begin with the Baku derby.
Last season's winners Sabah and Neftchi will face each other on January 21. The decisive half of the 32nd national championship will begin with the match on the first day of the XIX round.
The earliest start
The start of the games on the 21st day of the new year will be remembered as a repeat of the earliest start. In the history of the competition, held since 1992, a match has never been played in the first two decades of January. The record will be repeated with the Baku derby. So far, it has been restored only once this season on the 21st day of the year. This happened in 2021. At that time, the first three matches of the second half of the 2020/21 season were held.
Again in the square of "Sabah", again "Neftchi" is a guest
On the first day of the tour, which was the earliest start 3 years ago, "Zira" - "Gabala" (2:0), "Sabail" - "Neftchi" (1:3) and "Sabah" - "Qarabag" (1:2) were played. "Neftchi" and "Sabah", which started the game early in cold January, will once again start the "boyhood of winter". As at that time, "Sabah" will try its strength again on its own field. "Whites and Blacks" will be guests this time as well. Three years ago, "Neftchi" won the championship with such an early start, but this time, it does not seem realistic that the team, which is 13 points behind the leader, will perform a miracle.
Winter record in Azerbaijan
The second half of the current season is also notable for the number of games in January. Not only XIX, but also XX round matches will take place in the first month of the year. In total, 10 meetings of the Premier League will be organized in January. This is a new record in the 32-year history of the national championships. Never before has 10 games of a season coincided with a cold January.
Championship without January
The holding of championship matches in January is generally a rare occurrence. The first such case happened in the 8th season. Since the 1992 and 1993 seasons were held in the "spring-autumn" system, no games were organized in the first month of the year. In fact, it should be emphasized that the championship was newly organized in the first season, and that it served the transition to the "autumn-spring" system the following year. In the next five years, January did not see football. In the 1998/99 season, 14 teams participated in the matches of the tour on 30-31 of the month. Holding 7 matches in the first month was considered a record until the current season.
January 7 of our football
After 1999, it was necessary to wait 16 years for the next January. Two matches in 2015, five in 2016, and four in 2017 were organized in the first month of the year. Five sub-meetings were held in 2021 and one in 2023. In both cases, the meeting over one round happened in January. A previously postponed match, and last winter a meeting of the second round of the year took place so quickly. In general, 7 of the previous 31 seasons had games in January. 29 matches in these championships took place in the first month of the year.
It should be noted that in the first round of the year, which will begin with the Baku derby, "Kepez" - "Turan Tovuz", "Sabail" - "Zira" will be played on the 22nd of the month, "Gabala" - "Sumgait" and "Qarabag" - "Araz-Nakhchivan". matches will be held the next day.
Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz
