Azerbaijan trailblazers at home in Hertfordshire

Gomrukcu Baku, the team from the troubled former Soviet Republic, are holding their own at the Uefa Women's Cup

Perhaps it was inevitable that there should be misconceptions about the ladies of Gomrukcu Baku, footballing champions of Azerbaijan.

After all, little was known about a team which had only been formed two years earlier, and which was based this week in deepest Hertfordshire to take part for the first time in the Uefa Women's Cup, a tournament which itself only began last season.

But Vic Akers, whose Arsenal Ladies' side defeated the visitors from Baku 6-0 in their opening group match at St Albans, was surely pushing it in referring to them as "the Russians''. Azerbaijan has been an independent republic since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Other misconceptions were economic rather than political. You might have expected a country which is still engaged in a draining war with neighbours Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and which is reported to have 60 per cent of its population living below the poverty line, to be struggling when it came to financing women's football.

Wrong. According to Gomrukcu's manager, Isayev Khazar, and their combative captain, Natalya Jdanova, all of the players in Britain this week for a round-robin qualifier involving Arsenal, the Spanish champions Levante UD and Belgian league winners Eendracht Aalst, are full-time professionals.

Unlike the Arsenal side, which went semi-professional this season, the Azerbaijani players do not work part-time for their club. They are paid to play football, full stop.

Sporting funds appear to flow freely in a country where the president's son, Ilham Aliev, is president of the National Olympic Committee. Khazar also voiced surprise over the relatively meagre level of coverage the women's game gets in this country.

When Gomrukcu's players returned to Baku earlier this year after winning their Uefa Cup qualifying event in Slovenia, beating a host team and clubs from Ireland and Cyprus, they were met at the airport by supporters and media.

"English women's football has developed very well, but they do not get attention like the men,'' Khazar said after his side had beaten their Belgian opponents 8-0 at Bishop Stortford FC on Thursday in the second of their scheduled matches in what is effectively the women's Uefa Champions League. "In Azerbaijan our players are in the newspapers and on the television."

The Azerbaijani viewpoint was taken up with enthusiasm by Akers, after his side virtually ensured their progress to the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Levante.

"We are a very chauvinistic country and we don't give respect to women footballers to the same level as the Germans and Scandinavians," he said. "I'm disappointed at the lack of support for this tournament from the Football Association."

Referring to the recent press conference at which Sol Campbell voiced his support for the women's team and outlined his personal sponsorship of club captain Faye White, Akers added: "Arsenal have tried to promote the women's game. I wish there had been the same attitude within the FA. They advertise other sorts of games but ignore a tournament in their own backyard.

"The latest FA Bulletin doesn't even mention this event, and that is a slur on a club representing this country in European competition." In mitigation of his geographical slip, it has to be said that Akers – Arsenal's kit man – had had a hectic time of it on Thursday. Having travelled to Eindhoven for the men's team's first away win in Europe in 19 months, he had got back to the London Colney training ground at 5.30 that morning and managed only a couple of hours sleep before resuming duties which are even dearer to him than those he performs for Bergkamp, Henry, et al.

"I enjoy this more than anything,'' he said. "Having started the women's team up 18 years ago, it is something that is a particular love for me."

His well-drilled side now only has to gain a point against the Belgians, who have been beaten 8-0 by both the Azerbaijan and Spanish teams, in their final group match at Bishop's Stortford tomorrow (12.00) to reach the two-legged quarter-final.

That was where the English champions made their exit last season at the hands of Toulouse, but this time they are determined to keep pace with the dazzling European progress of their male counterparts. There was certainly no mistaking the commitment involved in Thursday night's key meeting with Levante, whose travelling fans made themselves well heard in a crowd of around 400 – roughly 400 more than had witnessed the earlier game between Gomrukcu and Eendracht.

As the final whistle went, the Arsenal players – victorious through a spectacular shot on the turn from Ellen Maggs and a towering header from White – leapt for joy while several of their opponents sagged to the ground in despair. No handshakes occurred.

The spectacle made a favourable impression upon a crowd which contained a fair number of locally based Arsenal fans. "Matches like this are going to be good to up the profile of the women's game," said Joe Haines, who was watching with his father John, a regular at Highbury, mother Christine and sister Bethan.

"It's European competition, and it's very rare to be able to see that locally," said Jason Munday, a footballing rarity given that he is a Harlow resident who supports Arsenal rather than Tottenham. He had taken the earlier opportunity to check out Azerbaijani football as well.

For Bill Bruty, a 75-year-old, from nearby Little Hallingbury, whose first experience of an Arsenal game was watching them win the 1936 FA Cup final through a goal from Ted Drake, the match was something of a revelation.

"This is one of the best games I've seen," he said. "They are two well balanced sides. I'm surprised how strong their kicking is."

One of the Spanish team re-emphasised that virtue on the final whistle, venting her feelings by belting a loose ball into the stand. This women's tournament is for real.