"The Russian national team is very strong."
This was stated by Azerbaijan national team player Sevinj Jafarzada in an interview with Idman.biz.
She commented on both friendly matches held in Sochi against the Russian team. Having played for Russian clubs for nearly 8 years, Jafarzada noted that she was already familiar with the strength of the opponent’s players: "They have very high-quality players. They never really needed international players, which is a sign of the good development of women's football in Russia. In their last official match, they defeated the Portugal national team. Although it was a few years ago, it shows their strength. There are 13 clubs in the national league and 20 in the youth league."
According to her, the loss was not due to the team's performance: "Anyone who watched the match can see that. I was playing against my club teammates. They even commented that we have a very good, fighting, and determined team. Although the Russians won, we didn’t play badly. The score didn’t reflect the actual gameplay. We lost by a minimal margin in both matches due to our mistakes. Friendly games will, of course, only take us to better places. It doesn’t matter if we lose or win here. The key is to win official games. The UEFA Nations League games will start in February next year. We’ll face Montenegro in the first match. They are very strong, but if we play the game we want, we can get a good result. I trust my team. Our only weakness is that we can’t put the final point in attack."
For context, Russia won both matches on November 28 and December 2 with a 1-0 scoreline.
Banuchichek Huseynli
Idman.biz
