"The overall progress of the match is positive, considering the individual performance of the players. Because we made more attacks than the team going to the European Championship.
Aslan Karimov, a former football player of the Azerbaijan national team, told Idman.Biz.
The veteran football player commented on the friendly game in which Azürbaijan national team lost to Albania with a score of 1:3. He explained the main reasons for the defeat: "We could not complete the scoring opportunities. One of the reasons for this was the lack of playing practice of Azerbaijani football players who played the decisive moments. The perseverance of Ramil Sheydayev and Mahir Emreli, who play in front, cannot be overstated. They were very willing. Their lack of practice inevitably prevented us from scoring in crucial moments. Another reason why the match was bought like this was to check the match strategy that Albania will apply in the "group of death". They wanted to play a bit dominant in the 1st half. True, they scored a goal. This goal was realized not by their creativity, but by our mistake."
According to Karimov, the opponent's strengths were evident in the match: "In the second half, the Albanians retreated a bit and started to play counter-attacks, which is their main strength. This is how they will fight against all their opponents in the European Championship. Even if we play dominantly in such games, we must be ready for the opponent's counterattacks. But we couldn't do it. The players of the Albanian national team seemed to be better than us from an individual point of view. Of course, the fact that most of them play in the Italian championship shows in this. They made us feel at ease with each other. Azerbaijan national team lacked such marches. If we create so many scoring opportunities against such a team, all is not lost. There is hope."
It should be noted that Azerbaijan will play the next friendly match against Kazakhstan. The match will take place on June 11.
Emin Agha
Idman.biz
