2024-03-08 19:41:19
“I want to thank our fans. They were with us in this weather. There was a great football atmosphere in the stadium today.”
As reported by İdman.biz, Qarabag head coach Gurban Gurbanov said this at a press conference after the first game of the 1/8 finals of the Europa League, in which they drew with Bayer – 2:2.
The experienced specialist thanked his players:
“We could have won. For me the main thing was to play a disciplined game. The players fought as hard as they could. Maintaining speed against such an opponent was not easy. In the second half, the opponent released their best players. I’m happy with my players.”
– Reaching this stage was a great story. The difference between German and Azerbaijani football is obvious. If everything goes well, will we accept a draw with Bayer as normal?
– It’s difficult for me to express an opinion on this matter. In football in many European countries, work is structured in such a way that even if managers, coaches and players change, the mechanism continues to work. It is important. It’s not easy for us. The steps we take to become fitter and stronger are very important. No matter what we do, they will be above us in the class. But you can achieve results by preparing for individual games. We will always see this difference.
– What do you expect from the return game?
– Believe me, I’m not disappointed. I may look tired. We all talk about Bayer’s strength. But we need to play better on the road. We didn’t stop. To succeed, you need to beat the big ones. Even if we suffer defeat, we must overcome them by winning. If not today, then in the future we will be able to get closer to this level.
– There were a lot of fans at the stadium today. The ladies seemed to take the result of the game as a gift for March 8th. They interpret the success of Karabakh as the policy of the Azerbaijani state. Have you proven that this is not so by scoring 2 goals against Bayer today?
– Unlike previous press conferences, there are more women here today. The value that Azerbaijani men attach to women differs from the values of other nations. I have witnessed this many times. Let your face always smile, you will always feel confident that there are such men in Azerbaijan, they respect and protect women. On another issue, football is far from politics. But no matter how far we keep it, sometimes it gets mixed up with politics. Many times in away matches our enemies acted stupidly, as if they wanted to show off. I did not understand. As a name, “Karabakh” was mixed with politics.
I have said many times that we are children of Azerbaijan, if we represent this country, we must always represent it with dignity abroad. We are always hospitable and are known as a people who do not claim anyone’s property or land. Even if we don’t want it, our name may be mentioned in a political way. The name “Karabakh” is very important for me and for everyone. We always try to be disciplined. I myself am far from politics, I don’t know its depths.
– Did the absence of disqualified players affect the result?
– I can’t say in percentage, but there was an effect. In such games it is very important to maintain speed and dynamics. Elvin Jafarguliyev and Julio Romao are players who can show their strength on the field for 90 minutes. They tolerate speed and dynamics. Today, some players have exhausted their strength towards the end. They even had muscle problems.
– If they had said before the match that the score would be 2:2, everyone would have agreed. But is it possible to show this game away?
– We must look at everything realistically. I was probably more confident before the game. I believed that the team would play well, playing the right game against the opponent. I read everywhere, there were a lot of calls that Bayer is very strong, even if we lose, it’s okay. But I believed that we could achieve a good result against this opponent in Baku. I won’t go to an away game without hope. We will prepare my team better than for the first match and play a better game. Germans don’t take any game for granted. We talked about this during our meeting with Xabi Alonso on the road. He told me about some of our moments during the analysis. This showed that they take us seriously. In any case, we are not going to Leverkusen without hope.
– Bayer did not play with its main players in the first half. Was this a surprise to you?
– It was expected. There were no significant changes. I expected him to rest some of his players. In previous games the team was the same. Wirtz and Boniface were not on the field. But Wirtz played in the second half. Perhaps this had its advantages. They came out later and increased the pace, we thought that Patrik Schick would play in attack, but we saw Borja Iglesias.
– You said that you tried some tactical moves for the match with Bayer in the game with Neftchi. Did you get what you wanted?
– We scored two goals with faster attacks. Bayer are one of the fastest teams in Europe, both in defense and in all positions. We had quick goals in the match with Neftchi, as well as in the match with Bayer. Juninho had one more episode, but it didn’t work out. There were several elements in defense that we tested in the match with Neftchi. We applied this today. But they simply couldn’t stand it until the end, they were tired.
– How is Juninho?
– He may have muscle problems. We’ll find out tomorrow. According to doctors, 70 percent is not fatigue, but injury. The rest are in good condition.
– In 2010, after a 0:1 defeat to Borussia in Baku, you said that you were not ready to play with such teams. What has changed in the 14 years since you were so close to beating Bayer?
– Let’s say that you can prepare a team for such matches in 1-2 games. But doing this all year round is difficult. Since it was the round of 16, the players were full of enthusiasm. We’ve had changes. Over the 14 years, my experience has increased and we have grown as a team. But our competitors are developing and moving forward day by day. We must consider the series of mastery in each case. We have to fight such opponents and become stronger.
– It seems that Alexey Isaev cannot fully adapt to the team. What do you think about it?
– On the contrary, he adapts to the team. Although he does not participate in the Europa League, he plays a lot in the championship. If someone does not appear in a certain match, this does not mean that the player cannot adapt to the team.
– How is Zubir’s psychological state and how did you support him?
– I didn’t make any comments to anyone. This is a game episode. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go where you want it to. In football we make mistakes, the opponent takes advantage or vice versa.
– Do you want your Premier League match to be postponed in order to seriously prepare for the game with your opponent?
– No, it’s too late. We will perform rotations as in previous games. As always, we will work according to our plan.
İdman.biz