2026-2027 Europa League: CSKA Sofia vs. Qarabag, Probable Lineups
Everything is still up for grabs between CSKA Sofia (the team for which former Inter player Stefano Sensi plays) and Qarabag, who face off Thursday evening at 8 p.m. Italian time (9 p.m. local time) at the “Vasil Levski” National Stadium, in the Bulgarian capital, for the second leg of the Europa League second qualifying round. The teams are starting from a 0-0 draw in the first leg, and the equation is simple: whoever wins advances to the next round, while the loser “drops down” to the Conference League.
The historic Sofia club hasn’t played in the main phase of a European cup competition since 2021–2022, when it reached the Europa League group stage via the qualifiers: that adventure did not end well, as they finished last with just one point in six matches against Roma, Bodo/Glimt (their only draw came against the Norwegians), and Zorya Luhansk. Since then, their best result in Europe has been reaching the Europa League group stage playoffs in 2022–2023, a two-leg series they lost to Basel.
Qarabag, on the other hand, is a regular fixture in the main stages of various European competitions, having played in the group stage—or the revamped league phase—every year since the 2014–2015 season. Last season, the Azerbaijani club also managed to qualify among the 24 teams advancing to the Champions League knockout stage, finishing the League Phase in 22nd place with 10 points. In the Round of 32, however, Newcastle proved to be too tough an opponent: Qarabag lost 6-1 at home and 3-2 in England, thus bowing out of the competition.
Probable Lineups
CSKA SOFIA (4-4-2): Lapoukhov; Martino, Ivanov, Rodriguez, Pastor; Ebong, Sensi, Panayotov, Jordao; Godoy, Pittas. Coach: Yanev.
QARABAG (4-2-3-1): Kochalski; Langa, Varkonyi, Huseynov, Silva; Jankovic, Bicalho; Zoubir, Kady, Kashchuk; Sawo. Coach: Qurbanov.
