Qarabag boss Gurban Gurbanov praises 'astonishing' Aberdeen fans as he speaks on Pittodrie pitch

Qarabag manager Gurban Gurbanov labelled Aberdeen fans “astonishing” for the atmosphere they created at Pittodrie.

Qarabag manager Gurbav Gurbanov. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

The Dons went down 3-1 – 4-1 on aggregate – to the Azerbaijan opposition in the play-off round of the Conference League.

Qarabag raced into a two goal lead with strikes from Toral Bayramov and Kady before Abdellah Zoubir added a third prior to Lewis Ferguson’s consolation from the penalty spot in stoppage time.

"We had quite difficult travel and we are very happy with such a win,” Gurbanov said.

"The atmosphere in the stadium was perfect, astonishing. I wish the team and especially these supporters a lot of victories in the future.

“Of course, I congratulate our team.”

The build-up to the first leg saw a lot of focus on the pitch at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium in Baku.

Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass labelled it a “disgrace” with Andy Considine suffering a cruciate ligament injury.

Gurbanov admitted he wasn’t happy with it either with his players expressing their quality on the ball at Pittodrie.

“I wouldn’t call it easy,” he said. “Our players can play but we prepared very well. I’m very happy our players played until the last seconds of the game.

“Here the pitch was great and we were really happy to play in front of these fans and my players enjoyed the atmosphere here.

“We always tried to play forwards in both games to get a better result.”

Glass praised Qarabag after the match and reasoned it wasn't an “embarrassment” to lose with the Azerbaijan side “a level above”.

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