In the XVII round of the Misli Premier League, the match between Neftchi and Zira ended in a goalless draw.

According to Offsideplus.az, the head coach of the Black-and-Whites, Yuriy Vernidub, commented on the match during the post-game press conference:

"Looking at the game as a whole, the first half wasn't very successful for us. During our training camps, we play friendly matches, and everyone knows those games don't always yield results. We occasionally rotated the squad during the training process. Here, the demands placed upon us are tough because we must earn points in every single match. We want to climb higher from our current position. I saw that our players were disappointed with the result. We have many games ahead of us. We will work harder on ourselves to see more victories."

Regarding the question, "Emil Balayev was mostly in goal during the winter training camp, but now you gave Kenan Piric the chance," he replied:

"Training camp is training camp. At that time, we were getting to know the players. The lineup we used today was the same one that played in our last match of the camp, so we decided to stick with it. We have 22 players, and everyone wants to play. I will do my best to give everyone a chance. Our goalkeeper coach has worked at Besiktas, and I trust him completely. I saw how he worked with the players during the camp. The time will come for Rza Jafarov and Emil Balayev to play as well. As the head coach, my choice today was Piric. Since we didn't concede a goal, you could say it was the right choice. If the result had been different, I would have considered giving the other players an opportunity."