"I believe we have enough strength to continue our work."
Azerbaijan national team head coach Fernando Santos shared his thoughts at the press conference following their friendly match against Belarus, Idman.biz reports.
- The team suffered another defeat. Do you have a personal limit for losses with Azerbaijan?
- I think the players performed well today. We are doing everything we can to avoid losing. All my players are disappointed. We must keep working.
- Zamig Aliyev made mistakes in both the Sweden and Belarus games. Would you start him in a third match?
- We must not forget that Zamiq is only 20 years old. Young players need consistent playing time. If they fear making mistakes, they won’t improve.
- You have played center-backs as full-backs in the last two matches. Do you think Azerbaijan lacks full-backs? Why don’t you call up Qismet Aliyev?
- Gismat Aliyev has been invited to the national team. I watch all the games and prefer Amin Seydiyev and Mert Çelik. Whenever we lose, people ask why certain players aren’t called up. A few days ago, you were asking why another player wasn’t playing.
- If a foreign coach lost 7 out of 8 games with Portugal, would he remain in charge?
- I have coached 109 games at the international level and lost only 20. You cannot compare Portugal and Azerbaijan. In Portugal, if you lose two games in a row, they sack you. I have never lost two consecutive games before. I have won the European Championship and the Nations League. You should direct this question to the federation, not me.
- You mentioned that you never lost two consecutive games with Portugal, but you have lost 7 out of 8 here. How many more defeats will it take to realize that you are wasting your time with these players?
- That is not a question for me. I have a contract. A coach’s job is to assess players’ potential and prepare them. Today, we made progress. Many young players played, and that’s a step forward. Right now, I am only focused on that.
- Fans and football experts are frustrated after these last two defeats. Will you apologize to them?
- Apologizing is different. Of course, we must bring joy to our fans. We share the same emotions as them – we are all disappointed. No one is happy about these results, neither me, nor my staff, nor my players. One day, Azerbaijani football will achieve results that make people happy.
- You said you signed a 3+1-year contract. If it had been a shorter deal, would you have come to Azerbaijan?
- No, I wouldn’t have. If the offer was for one or two years, I would not have accepted it because I knew this would not be an easy process. Azerbaijan is a beautiful country, but without a long-term project, I wouldn’t be here. Right now, I am very upset because I have never lost this many games in my career. However, I believe in myself and my players. I think we have enough strength to continue our work.
- These matches have shown that our national team is not on the same level as Haiti and Belarus. Should we choose weaker opponents to rebuild confidence?
- If we want to develop, we must play against stronger teams. It’s a good question, but if we just want to win games, we could schedule matches against much weaker teams. Everyone would be happy with those results. However, real progress comes from facing stronger opponents, and we will continue to do that.
The Azerbaijan vs. Belarus match at Bank Respublika Arena ended in a 2-0 victory for Belarus.
Aytaj Sahed
Idman.biz
