It was perhaps, an appropriate celebration for a nation known as the "Land of Fire" to set the seal on a month when Baku also hosted the International Chess Federation (FIDE) World Cup, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships and a stop of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Women’s 3x3 series.

The setting for the football match was the historic Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, named after Azerbaijani referee Tofiq Bahramov. 

It was built in the final years of the the Stalinist era, shortly before the old Soviet Union made its entrance to the Olympic arena at the Helsinki 1952 Games.

Qarabağ's match against Olimpija wasn't a classic which turned on two decisions by the video assistant referee (VAR).

The first awarded a penalty to Qarabağ and the second overruled a penalty initially given to the visitors.

There had been no VAR when Bahramov, chosen as linesman for the 1966 FIFA Men’s World Cup Final, made the biggest call of his career to signal a vital third goal for England against West Germany.

His decision that the ball had crossed the West German line after bouncing down from the cross bar remains one of the most contested and re-examined moments in sports history to this day.

It thrust him into the international sporting spotlight. 

Yet, it was a quarter of a century before 1966 that Azerbaijani athletes first made an impact on the world stage.

Before the second World War, no competitors from the Soviet Union and its constituent republics had taken part in wider international sport, let alone the Olympics.

All this changed after 1945.

At the Helsinki 1952 Olympics, a Soviet team of 295 included a small contingent from Azerbaijan.

Historians at the authoritative website Olympedia recognise wrestler Rəşid Məmmədbəyov, silver medallist in freestyle bantamweight as the first Azerbaijani Olympic medallist.

Gymnast Galina Urbanovich was the first Baku-born Olympic champion as part of the Soviet women's gold medal-winning squad in team all-around and portable apparatus. 

In later years, there was success for volleyball player Inna Ryskal, an Olympic gold medallist at Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972, who was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.

In 1992, the Azerbaijan Olympic Committee had not yet been constituted so their athletes competed as part of what was known as the unified team at the Barcelona Olympics.

Azerbaijan’s own National Olympic Committee (NOC) was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) almost exactly 30 years ago and they first competed under their own flag at the centennial Olympics held in Atlanta in 1996.

Since they have won 49 Olympic medals, seven of them gold.

The majority have come in wrestling, but the roll of honour also includes Zemfira Meftahetdinova, women's skeet champion at Sydney 2000.

She is now Azerbaijan Shooting Federation Vice-President.

Meftahetdinova was on hand to congratulate Nigar Nasirova after her gold in the 25 metre centre fire pistol during the ISSF World Championships over the last few days.

The home medals prompted great delight as volunteers rushed to join the medallists on the podium to celebrate.

"We already have medals from different age group events and we hope that the medals we used to have at the Olympic Games will come back," Sports Minister Farid Gayibov said after the medals were won.

The Baku Shooting Center (BSC) had been built when Azerbaijan was chosen to host the inaugural European Games of 2015.

It is an impressive complex with a huge indoor centre accommodating ranges at 10m, 25m and 50m shooting.

The latter can be adapted within a few hours to accommodate rifle shooting at 300m.

There is also a large outdoor range for shotgun events.

The 2015 European Games was a project in which Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, also head of the NOC, took great personal interest.

His wife Mehriban Aliyeva chaired the Organising Committee.

The Games welcomed some 6,000 athletes in 30 sports.

An Olympic Stadium on the outskirts of the city was one of another five major new venues used for the Games although construction had begun in 2011, to mark the centenary of football in Azerbaijan. 

When it was finished, it had a capacity of 68,000 and therefore became the largest stadium in Azerbaijan.

It  was a venue for the UEFA Men’s European Championship in 2021.

It staged three group matches and Denmark's victory over the Czech Republic in the quarter-final.

Last night, a concert by the American rock group Imagine Dragons was the latest event held there.

A short distance away is the National Gymnastics Centre, which has also hosted taekwondo, judo and table tennis.

In 2019, it was the setting for the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) European and World Championships and also staged the International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships.

On September 21, the 'Grace of Nature International Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament' is scheduled to be held there.

All sporting events in Baku this year have been designated as part of the "Year of Heydar Aliyev", a commemoration of the centenary of the birth of the previous President of Azerbaijan.

The father of the current President, Heydar Aliyev is still described as the "National Leader", some 20 years after his death.

He had been a high ranking KGB President in Soviet times but is now considered a father figure for the nation.

He had also been keen to promote chess.

A month ago, a spectacular ceremony launched the FIDE World Cup with an unprecedented prize fund of $1.83 million (£1.45 million/€1.69million).

In principle an open event, it was this year contested by 206 of the world’s best male players.

Norwegian superstar and world number one Magnus Carlsen was the star attraction as he laid the ghost of the one tournament he’d never won, by defeating 18-year-old Indian prodigy R Praggnanandhaa.

In Azerbaijan, the public also seemed to respond to the story of the unexpected progress of home player Nijat Abasov to the semi-final, mobbed by fans as he became a new folk hero.

There were 103 players in the FIDE Women’s World Cup, won by Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina, playing as a neutral, who defeated Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova.

The total prize money was $676,250 (£536,700/€625,670).

Whilst this was going on, a few kilometres away, the women's 3x3 series rolled into town for their Baku stop, held on the Boulevard on the Caspian Sea shore.

The rather splendidly named Dusseldorf Zoo, a German commercial team which included two Japanese stars, won convincingly in what has become a burgeoning series.

A total of 15 teams took part, including the commercial Neftchi team and Azerbaijan national squad.

Nearby, pitlanes for the Formula One (F1) Grand Prix have been in place since the first race on the streets of Baku, which was run as the European Grand Prix in 2016.

In a further indication of Azerbaijan's sporting ambition, F1 confirmed in April this year that a three-year deal had been signed for the race to continue until 2026.

"The Baku City Circuit has become a hugely popular venue for Formula 1," F1 President Stefano Domenicali said.

"It is an incredible circuit which always delivers huge drama, and has played host to some of the most exciting races in recent memory."

Baku's impressive portfolio of sporting events does not yet include the biggest of them all which seems to be the logical next step.

Officials will only admit that it would be a "dream" to host the Olympics but have given no indication of when this might be.

Around 16 years ago, Baku launched an Olympic bid for the first time with the 2016 Games as the target.

The  bidding process was then somewhat different.

Baku joined a race which included Doha, Prague, Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro in the first phase as an applicant city.

"Those responsible for the city and the 2016 Baku bid are especially highly motivated to make a clear statement with the conversion of the Bibi-Heybat oilfield, rich in history and beset by environmental problems ,into a lively, flourishing Olympic Park Precinct," the bid document said.  

"This process of transformation is to become the symbol of an exciting new beginning for the entire country on a path of development which is future-oriented, life-affirming and ecologically sound."

In the bid book, the Government made a pledge.

"The Republic of Azerbaijan will guarantee respect of the Olympic Charter, guarantee that it will take all the necessary measures in order that the City of Baku or any other cities or regions required for the operation of the Games fulfil their obligations completely." 

Baku were eliminated with Doha and Prague before the final phase and Rio was eventually chosen as the host city for 2016.

In 2011, Baku announced that it was to bid again for the 2020 Games, but once more their bid was not chosen, with Tokyo ultimately becoming host city.

There had been discussions about the possibility of a bid for 2024 but this did not materialise.

In the meantime, Baku had also agreed to host the Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017, an undertaking similar in size to the European Games, with around 6,000 participants.

The earliet Olympic window of opportunity would seem to be the 2036 Games, but the bidding process is rather different now, as the IOC has adopted a policy of discussion with aspiring host cities, rather than the open bidding race of the past.

Baku's facilities are undeniably top of the range.

Over the last few weeks, the 1,249 competitors and officials from 101 countries competing at the ISSF World Shooting Championships, seemed mostly satisfied with what they had found.

In informal conversations and on the record, many declared the BSC to be the best in the world or at least very highly placed.

As for the city itself, the contrast between gleaming modernity, the remarkable skyscrapers, the extraordinary Crescent Hotel and picturesque older streets of some grandeur, would provide the sort of backdrop television producers dream about, as F1 have already discovered.

Yet at every Games since Sydney 2000, the Olympics have been in late July or August, timings largely ordained by television.

This is a time of year when temperatures in Baku soar above 30 degrees celsius, even with the breeze off the Caspian.

Although the Olympics have twice been awarded to South Korea despite border tensions with the North, ongoing friction between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh region since the 1990s might also prove a potential obstacle,

The Armenian Shooting Federation declined to send a team to compete here in the ISSF World Championships, citing security concerns and chess player Levon Aronian had stayed away from the FIDE World Cup for similar reasons.

This brings us back to that football match which crowned the month.

Qarabağ , a club founded in 1987, have been based in Baku for the last 30 years, effectively exiled from their home.

Journalists at the stadium explained that Qarabağ  is now supported and followed by thousands of refugees who have now found homes in Azerbaijan, after fleeing the fighting in Nagorno Karabakh.

Fans waved giant flags, beat drums and at one stage, thousands of mobile phone lights were flashed in unison last week as the team secured a place in the Europa League group stages, where they will encounter German Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen, Norwegians Molde and BK Häcken of Sweden. 

That all begins on September 21, and progress from the group would be yet another realisation of the sporting ambition in the "Land of Fire".