"To be honest, Mongolia was a non-football team. They may have just started or are just gathering. There are many difficulties. It was a strange team."
Afran Ismayilov, a former football player of the Azerbaijan national team, told Idman.biz.
The veteran football player commented on the match in which Azerbaijan defeated Mongolia 1:0. He said that the complete defense of the opponent created a great difficulty for our team: "We have quality players. We should have played comfortably, scored goals and won with a big margin. It would have been a shame if we didn't score near the end. Looking at it this way, this is not a big result. We defeated them with great difficulty. It is difficult to play against such opponents. Also, it is difficult to root for a friendly match. Football players do not give 100 percent of their strength. This leads to the emergence of this kind of game."
Ismayilov evaluated the work of Arif Asadov, who led the team to the game: "I am also a supporter of the local coach. If they can give him a chance, why not? We have already brought in enough foreigners and none of them have contributed much result. I will be happy for Arif Asadov to stay rather than a foreigner. Regardless of the game, the result remains in history."
According to him, all our players performed at the same level: "We had a lot of chances. The ball bounced off the posts and crossbar. The best player of the game was the opponent's goalkeeper. They were 11 people behind. They built the "Wall of China" in the back. That's why it was necessary to play a bit smarter. In one-on-one battles, it was necessary to pass the opponent and finish the game or pass well. We had difficulty with these. We scored near the end and won. We must forget this match. We will play against a more serious opponent - Bulgaria. They fit our teeth. They were better before. But at the moment we are in better shape than them. I think we will play comfortably with them and win."
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani national team will play its next game against Bulgaria on March 25 within the framework of "FIFA series - Edition 2024".
Emin Aga
Idman.biz
