"After the game against Estonia, the motivation in the team was good. We hoped that the team would play a confident game against Austria."
Tabriz Hasanov, veteran football player, told Idman.biz this while evaluating the game of the Azerbaijan national team against Austria (0:1) in the qualifying round of EURO-2024.
The experienced expert said that the skill level of the opponent differed from Azerbaijani players: "The national team did not play at the Tofig Bahramov Republican Stadium for a long time. After this return, we hoped that the fans would show great interest in the game. But unfortunately, we did not experienced it. There was little support. Austria is a strong team. Although not many of their players came, they stood out from ours because of their skill level. But I wouldn't say that the opponent played better than us. I can't say that for our players, too. They seemed to be struggling, willing. My only regret was that Toral Bayramov could not take advantage of the excellent situation. The appearance of the main team players played a decisive role in the second half. "Sabitzer played a big role in both winning the penalty and scoring."
Hasanov thinks that the time has come to win victories: "We want good things to be said about the team. But it seems to me that we should stop saying "we played well and lost". More points are needed. Our team is not bad. Looking at the players, we have very good team. Now is the time for success. Sometimes I feel jealous when I watch the games of Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. They are already winning and getting points. I would really like to see who is in front of our national team. Always focus on winning points."
He also touched on the performance of the U-21 national team. Hasanov said that today Azerbaijani team should only think about victory in the match against Luxembourg: "Northern Ireland is one of the weakest in our group. We expected victory from our national team in the last game. Although the opponent remained in the minority, we could not defeat them. Our second chance came in the game against Luxembourg. Other teams are very strong. At least we have to play well against Luxembourg today and win points."
It should be noted that the Azerbaijan-Luxembourg game will start at 18:00 at "Azersun Arena".
Emin Aga
Idman.biz