Since the arrival of European football at the start of the 1960s, Shelbourne has represented our League in no less than 20 countries; some were footballing high spots and some  could only be described as football dives that neither players, officials or fans would fancy a repeat visit. However that cannot be said of Baku which is as stylish a location as Shels fans are likely to encounter. A true petro-capital with the investment present to make it a high-end venue for sport, shopping, entertainment and all the expensive things in life.

Qarabag FK, our rivals this week, are not a Baku team, but rather a team with an ocean of history, which if it were Irish would be so steeped in myth and legend that it would be the heroic subject of half a million ballads. Originally from the city of Aghdam,  (now, alas, a ghost town) it was caught up in a disastrous war in the 1990s; it was forced to relocate to Baku and became a poignant reminder of the horrors that local conflicts leave to torment a civilisation but bravely does little to kill the spirit of the supporting community. To prove the point, Qarabag has won its Premier league championship twelve times, it won its Cup Final eight times and it became the first Azerbaijani team to reach the group stage of the Champions League.
They proudly call themselves the ‘Refugee Club’, but since the current coach Gurban Gurbanov took over, the fans ominously call themselves the ‘Barcelona of the Caucasus’. They play their matches in two stadia the Azersun Arena and the larger Tofiq Bahranov Stadium. Tofiq won fame in 1966 when he was the ‘Russian’ linesman who flagged England’s controversial third goal against West Germany. Although he was not Russian but Azerbaijani.  After his death in 1993 the stadium was named in his honour.
A friend of this reporter was in Baku a few years back and spent a little time scoping out the restaurants, cafes, and pubs. He found no problem getting people to converse in English. His best recollection is enjoying a really good curry in a pub named after that great promoter of chicken tikka masala, William Shakespeare.

The population of Baku is 2.5 million.  There are a handful of English style bars in the town, lighter lagers are the most popular beers.  The most common is Xirdalan which was bought by the Carlsberg group in 2008. However if you want to splash out on a designer handbag there are plenty of Gucci shops around.

There are no easy games in Europe, so it won’t be a cakewalk in Baku, but it will be a very enjoyable experience.