It's game one of two in the Europa League as Neftçi host HJK. This is a 3rd Qualifying Round fixture played over two legs and nothing will be decided tonight.
HJK could be less fresh than the hosts in this fixture, as they played a Veikkausliiga game only three sleeps ago.
One slightly interesting match fact is that this game is played on grass and that the visiting HJK have a different surface at their stadium (artifical turf). The impact of this is hard to measure exactly, but the visitors stats on grass is 14-4-9 (win-draw-loss) from 27 matches.
Everyone involved with the away team has to get their travel gear ready for this match as there's a whopping 3200 kilometers to cover before arriving at the match.
Neftçi form and stats
Neftçi was eliminated in the 2nd qualifying round last season in the Europa League.29 points is a decent return from 14 Premier League games here at Bakcell Arena for Neftçi. The data says 9 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses. The team is doing great wherever they are playing as Neftçi has won four games in a row. The Sabah match was the last time out without a victory.
Nothing to worry about in defence for Neftçi, as their goalkeeper Aqil M@mm@dov has completely shut out the opponents for 421 minutes in the Premier League.
The Neftçi fans got no joy from their last match, a Champions League game also here at Bakcell Arena: A 0-1 defeat against Olympiakos Piraeus.
Prior to that was the away defeat visiting Olympiakos Piraeus (0-1).A decent goal production from Neftçi in their home games so far, with 21 goals from 14 league matches. Neftçi's goalkeeper has had to pick the ball out of their own net 15 times. For more goal stats, check the Statistics tab above.
HJK form and stats
They also participated in Europa League last season. This ended in the 3rd qualifying round.HJK have an excellent away record in the Veikkausliiga so far with 5-1-1 from 7 games.
Did you know that the longest clean sheet streak is 1816 minutes? This record is held by Mazaropi when he played in Vasco da Gama. HJK goalkeeper Maksim Rudakov is eager to challenge this, with his 194 minutes of keeping balls out from the net.
HJK's last game was the home draw against SJK (0-0).
A 2-2 draw was the result before that, hosting Malmö FF in the Champions League.HJK has another fixture away, a Veikkausliiga game, against KTP in just four days. A tough schedule for the visitors!
HJK are scoring more than one goal per away game on average, having accumulated 10 away goals from 7 games (in the league). HJK are tighter than a frog's bottom, as only 3 away goals have been conceded so far.
Head 2 Head
Top Goalscorers
  F. Valenčič 5 goals |  R. Riski 4 goals |  L. Farinhas Taffner 3 goals |
Neftçi missing players
HJK missing players
| Neftçi | HJK | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 11 | Played | P | 11 | 25 | ||
| 16 | 8 | Won | W | 7 | 17 | ||
| 4 | 0 | Drew | D | 2 | 6 | ||
| 5 | 3 | Lost | L | 2 | 2 | ||
| 43 | 19 | Scored | S | 19 | 52 | ||
| 19 | 8 | Conceded | C | 6 | 16 | ||
| 96% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 91% | 88% | ||
| 68% | 64% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 73% | 80% | ||
| 56% | 55% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 55% | 56% | ||
| 28% | 27% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 9% | 28% | ||
| 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 8% | ||
| 44% | 36% | BTTS | BTTS | 36% | 48% | ||
| 36% | 36% | Clean Sheets | C S | 64% | 52% | ||
| 24% | 27% | Failed to Score | F T | 9% | 12% | ||
| 3.9 | 3.6 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 4.3 | 5.9 | ||
| 4.5 | 4.5 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 5.5 | 4.2 | ||
| 2.4 | 2.1 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.6 | 1.6 | ||
| 4 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 2 | ||
| 11.2 | 11.5 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 9.5 | 11.7 | ||
| 4.7 | 4.6 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 4.1 | 4.9 | ||
| 37% | 37% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 42% | 42% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Neftçi | 28 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 47 | 25 | 14 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 21 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 10 | 22 | 59 |
| 2 | Qarabag | 28 | 16 | 9 | 3 | 64 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 39 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 25 | 8 | 46 | 57 |
| 3 | Sumqayt | 28 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 30 | 31 | 14 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 18 | -1 | 39 |
| 4 | Zira | 28 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 28 | 28 | 14 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 14 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 0 | 38 |
| 5 | Sabah | 28 | 7 | 8 | 13 | 28 | 38 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 19 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 19 | -10 | 29 |
| 6 | Kesl FK | 28 | 5 | 11 | 12 | 25 | 40 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 13 | 17 | 14 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 23 | -15 | 26 |
| 7 | Qabala | 28 | 5 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 44 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 16 | 20 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 24 | -21 | 26 |
| 8 | Sebail | 28 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 21 | 42 | 14 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 14 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 23 | -21 | 24 |
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | HJK | 14 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 18 | 35 |
| 2 | KuPS | 13 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 19 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 28 |
| 3 | Lahti | 14 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 26 |
| 4 | Inter Turku | 13 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 21 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 25 |
| 5 | SJK | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 24 |
| 6 | HIFK | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| 7 | Ilves | 14 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 15 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | -1 | 20 |
| 8 | Honka | 13 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 10 | -3 | 14 |
| 9 | Mariehamn | 13 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | -12 | 11 |
| 10 | Haka | 13 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 10 | -8 | 9 |
| 11 | KTP | 14 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 25 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 13 | -13 | 8 |
| 12 | Oulu | 14 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 11 | 26 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 14 | -15 | 7 |