"Three-period sports principles were preserved. There was no problem."
Evren Alkaya, head coach of Azerbaijan's U-18 national basketball team, told Idman.biz.
The Turkish expert commented on the match in which they defeated Armenia 68:42 in the group stage of Division C in the European Championship. He said that the opponent showed aggression in the last minutes: "As the minutes passed, we increased the difference. We revealed our game and blocked the opponent's strengths. As a result, we won. The last minutes of the match with Armenia were somewhat aggressive. Seeing that they lost, they started to play hard against our girls. After that, we provided psychological support to the team. We didn't make the events ugly, we didn't allow what Armenia wanted to happen. This is already our 2nd victory against them. The Armenians could not stand against us. Their basketball is far behind us. We have come to these places after a long journey."
Alkaya also evaluated the chances of the semifinals: "Cyprus is made up of basketball players born in 2006. They are experienced compared to us. Although they are short, they are very active. They play some ugly basketball. They try to be everywhere. They want to keep the opponent under pressure and create stress. We will try to play according to our system as much as we can. We believe that we will reach the final. We have 5-6 athletes from U-16. They have been participating in games for 15 days without rest. I hope it ends well. We will return to Azerbaijan with one more trophy."
The semi-final match between Azerbaijan and Cyprus will start tomorrow at 19:00.
Emin Aga
Idman.biz
