Azerbaijan football
An extraordinary meeting of the AFFA Executive Committee was held on November 22.
Idman.biz reports that traditionally the discussions at the end of the year were related to the head coach of the Azerbaijan national team.
The committee members who listened to Gianni de Biasi’s report decided not to extend his contract. With that, our team's time with the Italian came to an end.
17th in history
Working under the contract signed on July 30, 2020 and subsequently extended several times, de Biasi spent 1210 days "behind the steering wheel" of the team. Brought to this post with high hopes, he became the 17th head coach in the history of the Italian national team to lead at least one match. 16 specialists worked in this position before de Biasi, including those who worked under contract or temporarily held this post for a few games. The 17th specialist in this list came to our country after achieving historic results in the Albanian national team. Expectations from the student of the Italian coaching school, which is famous all over the world, were high.
Record breaker
De Biasi, who came to our country in the summer of 2020, led the team to the League of Nations for the first time that fall. After 2 years, the specialist, who again led the national team in the same tournament, was "behind the steering wheel" of the team at the qualifying stage of the World Championship in 2021 and the European Championship in 2023. In short, the legionnaire coach passed the exam with the team in 4 tournaments. With that, de Biasi went down in national history as the first and only coach who worked from start to finish in 4 tournaments. Until then, the record holder was Berti Vogts. The German, who led the team in three cycles, was dismissed in the course of the 4th.
Late decision?
De Biasi's activity in our national team can be divided into two parts. The first cycle consists of the 2021/22 season of the Nations League and the World Cup qualifying, which qualify for the playoffs of the tournament on the eve of the 2022 World Cup. This period can be considered as a fiasco. Our team, which is in the same group as Montenegro, Luxembourg and Cyprus, was only the third in the League of Nations. However, many expected the team to fight for the first place. The failure in the qualifying stage was followed by failures. In 2020-21, the national team lost 9 times with only 1 victory in 14 official matches. Maybe AFFA should have let him go of the specialist at that time and should not have extended the contract.
De Biasi’s system worked
De Biasi’s second cycle consisted of the 2022/23 season of the Nations League and the EURO-2024 qualifying. In 2022-23, the team was not the same as before. In the League of Nations, our national team defeated not only Belarus, but also strong Slovakia and the group leader Kazakhstan in the finish. It was these results that later allowed the dream of the playoffs. At the qualifying stage, our team, which achieved record results in 5-team groups, won 5 victories in 14 matches and lost only 7 times in two years. In short, the team that scored 7 points in 2020-21 scored 17 points in the next two years. This indicator was also not considered satisfactory with the thought of " having eyes bigger than the stomach". Perhaps the next two years would lead to better results. But the results aside, the behavior of the specialist was also full of patience.
Generational change
What has de Biasi's "magic wand" changed in this short time? First of all, there was a certain generational change in the team. Maksim Medvedev, Gara Garayev, who could not perform as before, Badavi Huseynov, whose injuries were increasing, as well as Javid Huseynov, Araz Abdullayev, Dmitri Nazarov, Pavel Pasheyev, gradually fell away from the team. Instead, Shahruddin Mahammadaliyev completely privatized the "number 1" of the national team, Bahlul Mustafazade, Renat Dadashov and Anton Krivotsyuk became the main team members. Toral Bayramov and Elvin Jafarguliyev, who debuted in the national team under the leadership of de Biasi, became the main "wings" of the team. Aleksey Isayev, who became a member of the "11-liy", was also opened to young people such as Musa Gurbanli, Yusif Imanov, Emil Safarov, who are considered the future of the national team.
He could not avoid mistakes
De Biasi brought new names and leading figures to the national team. Of course, these players were not trained by the national team, but by the clubs. This is the case everywhere in the world. However, it is the Italian who brought those footballers to the national team. The Apennine specialist could not avoid mistakes. Sometimes he himself admitted it. De Biasi, who does not have a warm relationship with the media representatives, who formed negative opinions about himself by making different statements in our country and in his homeland, admitted his mistake regarding Richard Almeida. For some time, the specialist did not consider the Brazilian worthy of the national team, and later, fully aware of the ability of the midfielder, returned him to the team. But it was too late, Richard was about to say goodbye to the nation, and he did. The head coach, who is more or less self-proclaimed in Europe, has dishonored himself with his misplaced principles. For these reasons, de Biasi, who sometimes called up and released those who did not play in his club, and sometimes those whose injuries were not fully recovered, "ate" a lot of criticism. Although Rahil Mammadov, who had difficulty getting into the "Qarabag" team, fully justified this trust, the same cannot always be said about Hojjat Hagverdi and Eddy Israfilov.
A captain who became a leader
Another big mistake of the former head coach of the national team ended up with perhaps the most memorable benefit. We are talking about Emin Mahmudov. When he first came to the team, he didn't even want to feel the presence of the midfielder. Emin was not considered a leading figure in the national team during the time of the previous coaches.
However, in a short time, the player who showed himself to the head coach became not only a member of the main team, but also the captain and the leader of the national team. The fact that he showed these qualities and revealed his bombardment characteristics is one of the greatest successes of the Biasi era.
It wasn't just Emi's goals and great play, it was a change of trend in the mile. Due to playing defensive football almost throughout its history, the leaders of our team were mainly defenders. For many years, the captaincy and leadership were in center defenders such as Tarlan Ahmadov and Rashad Sadigov. The fact that the creative player and the midfielder is the leader of the team already indicates a change in the game plan. Compared to previous years, when the national image of the underdog has gained, it shows a more polished football, which gives us reason to expect more.
On the verge of 40
De Biasi, who finished his career in our national team, led the team to a total of 39 matches in more than 3 years. He is the 2nd in the history of the team in this indicator. Our national team has 10 wins, 8 draws and 21 losses with the Italian. Our football players scored 34 goals and conceded 56 balls under the guidance of a specialist who is on the verge of 40.
28 of these meetings were held within the framework of official tournaments. The team, which achieved 6 wins and 6 draws in 28 matches of the World and European championships, as well as the Nations League, has lost 14 times. 43 balls were released against 21 scored goals.
6th international
De Biasi is no longer in the national team and the topic of discussion is also different. Who will come to the team, local or foreign, is on the agenda. He remained in the history of the Italian national team as the 6th legionnaire who brought him to the field. One of them was Gjoko Hadzievski, who temporarily held this position. AFFA, which has searched for specialists abroad five times, brought Carlos Alberto Torres, Berti Vogts, Robert Prosinecki, Nikola Yurcevic and Gianni de Biasi to the team. The association is again searching and facing a choice: local or international?
Hussain Vagif
Idman.biz
