“We lost, but we still played well. I liked our team’s performance. And we must not forget that we were playing against Qarabag.”
These words were said by “Sumgayit” and national team player Rustam Ahmadzada while speaking about their 2–4 defeat to “Qarabag” in Matchweek 12 of the Misli Premier League.
He noted that the result did not fully reflect the game: “Qarabag played against us with almost their main squad, about 80 percent of the lineup they use in the Champions League. This is a team that competes in the Champions League, and we all know very well what results they achieve there. That’s why I am satisfied with how we performed against Qarabag. However, I still think that the score did not quite match the game,” he told qoll.az.
The 25-year-old added that Qarabag did not want to lose to Sumgayit for the second time this season: “The defeat in the first round motivated Qarabag. They were even more focused than usual. They did not want to lose to us again. This made our task even more difficult, because the Qarabag players are very strong both individually and as a team.”
Ahmadzada emphasized that they could not prepare for the match with the full squad: “We had players away on national team duty. Some of them returned to camp only one day before the game. That’s why we couldn’t fully prepare for this match. Overall, I am satisfied with our performance. Only the result did not go our way.”
