"Winning the championship is difficult, but defending the title is even harder. Thankfully, our hard work paid off, and we achieved our goal. From the beginning of the season, we discussed among ourselves that this year would be tougher. Being champions, the expectations on us grew each year."
This statement was made by Tamkin Khalilzada, a member of the Birbasha Baku team, which won the Azerbaijan Mini-Football Championship, in an interview with Futbolxeber.az, Idman.biz reports.
He highlighted that their opponents in the final, Zira, were a strong team: “We had prepared seriously for the final. We followed the instructions of our head coach. Of course, we are happy and thrilled with the win. Our opponent was tough as well, and they had 3 foreign players on their team. But they couldn’t stop us from winning the title.”
The experienced player emphasized that they entered this final with higher motivation compared to previous ones: "We were very eager. Without motivation, achieving anything is impossible. We had more motivation this time than in previous finals because we are the Champions League winners. We knew expectations were high, and we had to meet the challenge."
According to Tamkin Khalilzada, the fact that Zira had 3 Kazakh legionnaires in their squad served as additional motivation for his team: “We knew there was a plan against us. Zira had players from the Kazakhstan national team, and we wanted to prove that the identity of the opponent doesn’t matter to us. Whether they are Kazakh or Romanian, it doesn’t change our goal. Thank God, we managed to defend our title.”
İdman.biz
