Qarabag 0 : 0 Saint-Etienne - Karabakh impress in draw

St Etienne emerged from Azerbaijan with a 0-0 draw from their Europa League opener with FC Karabakh,

The French side may have fancied their chances of kicking off with a win against the relative minnows, but in the end they will have been glad to go home with a point.

Karabakh are an improving force in European football - they hammered Valletta in their Champions League qualifier before a narrow loss to Salzburg - and in Reynaldo have a player capable of causing serious problems.

He ran the show on a night when Karabakh dominated, short of the odd St Etienne chance.

One of them came in the fourth minute when Max Gradel drifted a header just wide, but after that Karabakh took control.

Reynaldo worked Stephane Ruffier with a 12-yarder that the keeper did well to cling on to, and the former Anderlecht striker was in the thick of it again not long after, sliding wide when he should have done better.

Back came St Etienne - in the Europa after their Champions League charge ran out of steam - and Gradel's cross was met by Moustapha Bayal Sall who nodded over.

Karabakh are known as the Horsemen and they continued to plough forward, with Muarem Muarem, the Macedonia international, warming Ruffier's hands from the edge of the box, while Maksim Medvedev should have done better with a header from a Chumbinho corner.

The home side continued to impress after the break, with Vuqar Nadirov testing Ruffier, with the overworked keeper then having to be at his best to repel a Reynaldo free-kick.

Everything seemed to be going through Reynaldo - who already has three league goals in four appearances this season - and he nearly opened the scoring on the hour, crashing against the bar from a Medvedev cross.

He then drove straight at Ruffier as Karabakh went for it, but their failure to defeat Ruffier deflated them and the game fizzled out.