Today, Qarabag will play the second leg of the Europa League last-11 and are about to write a new history.
According to Idman.biz, Gurban Gurbanov’s team, who missed the victory at the last moment in the match with the German Bundesliga leader Bayer in Baku, will play a decisive match in Leverkusen.
Being the first Azerbaijani club to reach the R16 in the European Cups, Qarabag has the opportunity to become our first representative in the best "eight". For this, it is necessary to end the unbeaten streak of Bayer, which has not lost in the current season.
If the champion of Azerbaijan succeeds in this, he will be able to go down in the history of European Cups.
174 cups
174 awards have been won in the European Cups held since 1955 until the current season. We are talking about the tournaments held in the Champions League, the Cup Winners' Cup, the Europa League and the Conference League. One of these competitions - the Cup of Cups has gone down in history. The Conference League is being held for the 3rd time.
Different format
The number of tickets to the quarter- finals in 174 tournaments should be 1392. However, up to the current season, any team has been called to the quarter-finals 1386 times. The same happens with the number of semi-finalists. This is because the format is different in some years. Sometimes the 1/4, and sometimes the semi-finals were replaced by the group stage. Or that round did not take place. In the current season, 8 teams made it to the quarter- finals of the Champions League. With this, the total number reached 1394.
32 countries
So far, clubs from 32 countries have reached the quarter-finals. Three of those countries no longer exist. These are USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. If Qarabag writes history, Azerbaijan will be the 33rd country to see the quarter-finals. It is interesting that among these countries there are those that do not currently have a strong club, such as Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Finland, and Wales. Azerbaijan needs only one victory to enter the list.
280 clubs
So far, 280 European clubs have reached the quarter-finals. If history is written in Leverkusen, Qarabag will be the 281st team in the history of European Cups.
Germany advanced to this stage with a record number of 30 teams. 25 English clubs have seen 1/4 finals.
The number of countries represented in the 1/4 finals
1. Germany – 30
2. England – 25
3.Spain - 21
4. Italy – 17
5. Belgium – 15
6. France – 14
7-8. Yugoslavia – 13
Czechoslovakia – 13
9. The Netherlands – 10
10-14. Portugal – 9
Scotland – 9
Switzerland – 9
Denmark – 9
USSR – 9
15-17. Poland – 8
Austria – 8
Romania – 8
18. Hungary – 7
19-22. Sweden – 6
Greece – 6
Bulgaria – 6
Russia – 6
23-24. Turkiye – 5
Norway – 5
25. Ukraine – 4
26-29. Wales – 3
Finland – 3
Czech Republic – 3
Croatia – 3
30-31. Northern Ireland – 2
Israel – 2
32. Cyprus – 1
Representatives of two countries
The total number of 1/4 finalists by country is more than 280. This is not without reason. Some clubs have left the R16 as representatives of two countries. We are talking about the teams of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Some clubs have advanced to within one step of the semi-finals both in the united country and after independence.
Record from Spain
Azerbaijan is on the threshold of the first promotion to the quarter-finals. But this round has become normal for the giants of the European Cup. In this sense, the record is in Spain. The number of clubs of this country participating in the quarter-finals is almost over 200. Germany is second and England is third.
1. Spain - 198
2. Germany - 193
3. England - 172
4. Italy - 161
5. France - 78
6. Portugal - 75
7. Netherlands - 71
8. Belgium - 57
9-10. Yugoslavia - 43
Scotland - 43
11-12. Czechoslovakia - 31
USSR - 31
13-14. Switzerland - 25
Hungary - 25
15. Austria - 24
16-19. Romania - 17
Greece - 17
Bulgaria - 17
Turkiye - 17
20-22. Poland - 16
19-22. Sweden - 16
Russia - 16
23. Denmark - 12
24. Ukraine - 11
25. Czech Republic - 7
26-27. Norway - 5
Wales - 5
28-29. Finland - 3
Croatia - 3
30-31. Northern Ireland - 2
Israel - 2
32. Cyprus - 1
Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz
