Interview with Qarabag forward Musa Gurbanli on Futbolxeber.az
- Despite leading for a long time in the match against Turan Tovuz, you ended up losing after conceding two consecutive goals. What caused the defeat?
- Turan Tovuz is a strong team, especially their playing style makes it a bit uncomfortable for us. We have not managed to beat them this season. We really wanted to win this time. Unfortunately, we lost with the goals we conceded in the final moments. Once again, we conceded from a set-piece. Overall, I think we played a good game, but the lack of focus in the final moments led to the loss.
- Will the goals conceded in the final minutes create psychological tension in the team?
- It's not ideal, of course. However, such situations occur in football. This is not the first time something like this has happened to us. There have been similar incidents before, and we’ve always managed to bounce back from them. I believe the team will recover from this situation.
- How do you relate the goals conceded from set-pieces to the team’s performance?
- We acknowledge that we have a weakness in this area. This has always been a problem for us. We work on this in training. Our coaches point out our mistakes and explain them during the game analysis. I don’t know if it's bad luck or lack of focus, but if this keeps happening, we need to work on it more.
- In the next match against Zira, will it be possible to end the losing streak?
- Of course, we will try to win. Zira is a good team, and they have a strong squad. It will be a tough game. We will prepare as best as we can to secure the three points.
- The current debate is whether the foreign player limit will be removed in our Premier League. As a leading player of the national team, what are your thoughts on this?
- My personal opinion won’t affect the decision, but if you're asking, I don’t think it’s a good decision for Azerbaijani football or our national team. You can already see that we have a shortage of players in every position. We don’t have enough players, and there are very few Azerbaijanis playing abroad. In general, it’s not easy for Azerbaijani players to establish themselves in Europe. Our league’s level is not high enough for players to go abroad and comfortably perform. If there were 15-20 teams in our league, we could say that even if the limit was removed, local players would still have opportunities in clubs.
- You mentioned that Azerbaijani players can't establish themselves in Europe. You also didn’t stay long in Sweden. What hinders players from establishing themselves in Europe?
- I went to Sweden when I was very young, just starting to play for Qarabag. After one successful season, I went to the Swedish league, which is not weak and is in a good European championship. To be honest, what’s missing for establishing oneself in Europe is experience. A player sent abroad needs time, but they don’t have the luxury of time because they are expected to deliver results immediately. If our league's level were higher, the experience gained here would be enough. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. To succeed in Europe, we need to play many games at a higher tempo, with faster and more intense matches.
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