Azeri duo flying the flag

In 2012-13 Neftchi Baku became the first club from Azerbaijan to reach the group stages of any European competition. They did so by overcoming Cypriots APOEL Nicosia, who themselves months previous were champions league quarter-finalists. Neftchi became the flag ship club, the one to aspire to for the other Azeri sides in Europe. All of the country's other sides were long gone out of Europe when Neftchi broke through the group stage barrier. 

In that group they got Inter Milan, Partizan Belgrade and Rubin Kazan. Three draws, which included a 2-2 draw at the San Siro and three defeats followed. Neftchi had not disgraced themselves. 

Fast forward two seasons to last season and there was another breakthrough this time for FK Qarabağ. The side in exile from their home of Agdam broke through having ousted Twente on away goals in the play-off round. Their group again featured Inter Milan plus Saint-Étienne and Dnipro. They norrowly missed out on the last 32 after a Dnipro win in the final game coupled with Qarabağ's 0-0 draw at home to Inter saw the Ukrainians go through by a point. 

This season however Qarabağ are back in the group stages of the Europa League and they are joined by fellow Premyer Liqasi side Qabala. For the first time ever there are two Azeri sides in the group stages together. However Qabala's campaign is a learning curve as with four games played in their group they have a solitary point, gained in the draw at home to PAOK. 
Qarabağ however are still in with a fighting chance of breaking new ground by getting through. They currently have four points from four games in a tough group featuring Tottenham, Monaco and Anderlecht. They are two points behind 2nd placed Monaco with two games to go and are by no means done. They face Tottenham tomorrow night in what will decide if they go into that final game with Anderlecht with the chance of creating history. 
Qarabağ's route to this stage started in the champions league where a narrow defeat to Celtic saw them drop down into the play-off round for the Europa League. A comprehensive victory over BSC Young Boys saw them through while Qabala dispatched Greeks Panathinaikos. 

Back home it is no surprise that Qarabağ are currently leading the Premyer Liqasi. They are nine points ahead of both Inter Baku and Qabala after thirteen games played. Neftchi are languishing in mid-table three years after their breakthrough. 
The rise of Azeri club football can be put down to a influx of foreign players. A quick glance at the Premyer Liqasi top scorers shows only two local players in the top ten scorers. Qarabağ's recent European runs have given them the financial backing to lure some decent foreign players such as Rydell Poepon, Míchel and Dani Quintana. Qabala have been able to attract former Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Oleksiy Gai as well as Oleksiy Antonov from Aktobe in Kazakhstan. 

The next stage for Azeri sides would be the try an get through the group stages in the Europa League or do what Kazakhstan have done this season and get a team into the group stage of the Champions league. Qarabağ's defeat to Celtic, while narrow in scoreline did show that in the champions league this season there is still a bit more work needed. It does look on current form that the Agdam side will be Azerbaijan's representative side in next season's champions league however with Qabala also qualifying for the group stage in the Europa League this season it shows that Azerbaijan do have a bit of depth and like some leagues around Europe there isn't one dominant team flying the flag.