Geyazan Amateur team guide

Country: Azerbaijan

How they reached the finals:
Azerbaijan's Geyazan Amateur are the biggest travellers in the UEFA Regions' Cup finals, but having won their qualifying group in style, Mehdi Salmanov's side have earned the chance to compete with the cream of Europe's amateur sides.

Home territory
Qualifying Group 1 saw Geyazan competing on home territory and they took full advantage with three back-to-back wins and eleven goals seeing them overcome opponents from Greece, Georgia and Ukraine.

Narrow win
Their opening game against Ukraine Amateur in Baku was only the prelude to a magnificent goalscoring display. Eldaniz Mammadov scored the only goal of the game in the 65th minute, but it was to prove to be the first of many for his side.

First-half setback
George Gunia gave Tbilisi Amateur of Georgia the lead against Geyazan after 30 minutes of their second game, but that brought the best out of Geyazan. Etimad Gurbanov scored in the 43rd minute to level the scores and then doubled his haul three minutes after half-time to give his side the lead.

Goalscoring Gurbanovs
The goalscoring baton was then passed to his namesake Sanan Gurbanov, who scored in the 78th and 83rd minutes as the Georgian resistance crumbled. A goal two minutes into added time from Namig Hasanov completed a 5-1 win.

Greek opponents
Imathia Amateur of Greece went down by a similar scoreline in Geyazan's final game at the Shafa stadium. Elmar Bakhshiyev gave the Azerbaijani side a tenth-minute lead, but Vasilios Karasardis levelled the scores before half-time.

Second-half rout
However, the second-half was a walk-over for Geyazan. Zaour Ramazanov restored the lead after 54 minutes, Vugar Gurbanov made it 3-1 after 63 minutes and Mammadov scored his second goal of the qualifying round to make it 4-1 after 67 minutes. To add insult to injury, Sanan Gurbanov then scored his third goal of the Group 1 qualifiers to make it 5-1 after 72 minutes.

Azeri confidence
If nothing else, Salmanov's side have proved in their qualifying campaign that scoring goals is not a problem for Geyazan. With the full Azeri national side having recently won a famous 2-1 victory against Serbia and Montenegro, perhaps the time is right for footballing glory to come to the former Soviet republic.

Top scorers:
Sanan Gurbanov (3)
Eldaniz Mammadov (2)
Etimad Gurbanov (2)