Interest factors ahead of second leg tie

Our team won 2-1 in Azerbaijan last week in the first match of the second qualifying round of the CL. In our article below, we have collected some interesting facts about the match and the first meetings of the second qualifying round.

Apart from Sumqayit FK vs Fehérvár FC, 48 matches were played in the second qualifying round of CL last week, but only 47 matches were played apart from ours, as Puskás Akadémia FC advanced without a game, with a 6-0 aggregate score, as their Ukrainian opponent Dnipro-1 was eliminated.

In the 48 matches played, a total of 136 goals were scored (not including the two 3-0 wins without a game for PAFC). The most goals (eight in total) were scored in the F91 Dudelange - BK Häcken match, which the visitors won 6-2. The highest scoring win was secured by Armenian side FC Noah, who beat Sliema Wanderers FC from Malta 7-0 at home.

Out of the 48 meetings, only four victories were achieved when a team managed to come from behind, but only Vidi managed to do it away, the other three were done by home teams: NK Osijek - Levadia Tallinn 5-1, Gent - Víkingur 4-1, St. Gallen - Tobol 4-1.

Despite the fact that Khachaiev of the Azerbaijan side was sent off in the 32nd minute after his second yellow card, Vidi did not play the most time with the man advantage, as in the match NK Maribor vs. Universitatea Craiova (2-0) the red card was shown to the Romanian player Denil Maldonado in the 31st minute.

In the most important statistical indicators, we outplayed our Azeri opponents in the first match. We had 21 attempts on goal, while the home team had 7. We hit the target seven times, the Azeri team three times, and from corners we had four, while the home team had two - one of them from a corner kick, which gave Sumqayit the lead.

Both teams had a young player on the pitch. For the home team, Nihad Ahmadzada, born in 2006 and celebrating his 18th birthday two days before the "away game", came on at the break, while for us Patrik Kovács came on in the 85th minute. Kovács was the tenth youngest player to start in this year's Conference League series. Interestingly, the youngest player to start, Dinamo Tbilisi's Saba Kharebashvili, was 15 years, 10 months and 8 days old when he came on for the CL match against FK Mornar Bar, meaning he was under 16 - he would not be allowed to play in any Hungarian adult league match at such a young age, as MLSZ rules state that only players over 16 can start in an adult league match.

Finally, a special mention must also go to the enthusiastic Vidi fans who travelled over 3000 km to cheer live for our team - one of the furthest away matches in Azerbaijan where Vidi fans were on the ground.

We have only played one international match further afield in recent decades, against Kairat Almaty in the UEFA Cup in 2006. The largest Kazakh city, which was also the country's capital until 1997, is 5500 km from Székesfehérvár. Over the past 15 years, our fans have accompanied us to several cities further afield, including Trabzon in 2012 and Tallinn in 2017.