Rakow Czestochowa will be hoping to secure a first-leg lead when they play host to Qarabag FK in the second round of the Champions League qualifiers at Miejski Stadion Pilkarski Rakow on Wednesday evening.
The hosts won their opening Champions League qualifying tie, overcoming Estonian outfit Flora 4-0 on aggregate, while the visitors eased past the champions of the Gibraltar National League Lincoln Red Imps 6-1 on aggregate in the opening round.
Match preview
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Rakow Czestochowa has experienced a remarkable rise in recent years, and it is easy to forget that it was as recent as the 2018-19 season that they were battling in the second tier of Polish league football.
However, that season also marked the turning point as they achieved promotion to the Ekstraklasa and reached the Polish Cup semi-finals, defeating much bigger teams such as Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw.
During the 2019-20 season, Rakow Czestochowa finished in 10th place in the Ekstraklasa. However, they made significant progress in the following season, 2020-21, securing a second-place finish, their highest league position in history at that time.
After another second-placed finish in 2021-22, the team's historic achievement came in May this year, when they won the Ekstraklasa championship for the first time in their history, culminating their remarkable journey from the lower divisions to become the top team in Polish football.
This is the first time they will be competing for a Champions League spot, though their journey in the 2021-22 UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers was notable as they managed to advance past the second qualifying round by overcoming Suduva and Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan in the third qualifying round before bowing out to Gent in the final round.
Dawid Szwarga's men have picked up where they left off this term, recording a solid 3-0 win against Jagiellonia Bialystok in their first league match of the season, which means they have won four of their last five competitive matches, with their only loss coming in a penalty shootout in the Super Cup final two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Qarabag booked their spot in the Champions League qualifiers after earning their tenth Azerbaijan Premier League title and third in succession last season, when they finished nine points clear of their closest challengers Sabah.
They were incredible across the course of the season, recording an impressive 28 wins in 36 league matches, along with six draws and just two losses, while scoring 91 goals in that time.
In the 2014-15 season, Qarabag achieved a significant milestone by becoming only the second Azerbaijani team, following Neftci PFK, to reach the group stage of a European competition when they qualified for the UEFA Europa League.
Even more impressively, in the 2017-18 season, Qarabag made history as the first Azerbaijani team to advance to the group stage of the prestigious UEFA Champions League, marking a remarkable achievement for Azerbaijani football despite failing to win a single match in the group stages.
The visitors ended last season with four wins in their last five league matches, though the one match they lost did come after they had secured the title, and with their wins in the first round, Qarabag are now on a three-match winning streak.
Gurban Gurbanov's side have made it to the third round of qualification in each of their last eight appearances at the Champions League qualifiers and will be heavily fancied to do likewise this season.
Team News
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Szwarga's top scorer from last season, Ivi Lopez, has been ruled out for the foreseeable future with a cruciate ligament rupture, and reports suggest that the attacker may only return to the side next year.
Adrian Gryszkiewicz is also out for an extended period with a torn meniscus, while Kamil Pestka has been out since last season and has not returned to first-team training as yet.
For the visitors, Gurbanov has just one injury absentee in this match, with defender Abbas Huseynov still some way from returning to action following a knee injury he picked up at the start of the year.
Kevin Medina will serve the last of his three-match ban in this one after picking up a straight red in Qarabag's final match of the Europa League last season.
Rakow Czestochowa possible starting lineup:
Kovacevic; Svarnas, Arsenic, Rundic; Tudor, Kochergin, Lederman, Carlos; Nowak, Cebula, Zwolinski
Qarabag FK possible starting lineup:
Mahammadaliyev; Vesovic, Mustafazada, Guseynov, Cafarguliyev; Jankovic, Romao, Benzia, Andrade, Zoubir; Xhixka
We say: Rakow Czestochowa 1-1 Qarabag FK
Both these sides come into this match carrying solid domestic league form and managed fairly convincing wins in their first-round matches. We expect this to be a close-run encounter between two well-matched sides and fancy that they will cancel each other out and head into the second leg level.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
