Kapaz midfielder Valdemar Almeida spoke to Sportal.az about the team's recent draw and their ambitions moving forward in the Azerbaijan Premier League.
- What are your thoughts on the match against Araz-Nakhchivan?
- It was an interesting game. Araz-Nakhchivan is a solid team, and they’re ahead of us in the standings. Still, we delivered a quality performance on the pitch. Given the strength of our opponent, a draw can be seen as a positive result for us.
- Head coach Azar Baghirov said the team lost two points. Do you agree?
- From my perspective, the coach said that because we missed several scoring opportunities. We created enough chances to score not just one, but multiple goals. I believe we played better than Araz-Nakhchivan.
- What do you think caused the missed chances?
- That’s football. Sometimes you convert your chances, sometimes you don’t. What matters is that we were able to create real threats as a team. We’ll work on our mistakes and I believe we’ll have more chances to score in upcoming games. I personally had a chance to score too. As a team, we missed our chances, but the coach was satisfied with our overall performance.
- You’ll face Shamakhi next. If you win, you’ll be tied on points. How do you view that match?
- The opponent doesn’t matter to us. We want to win. Of course, catching up in points also depends on Sumgayit, who are currently in 8th place. But for now, we’re focusing on ourselves and improving with each game.
- You’re currently 8 points ahead of Sabail, which likely means you’ll remain in the Premier League. Is there any sense of complacency in the team?
- Not at all. We're not thinking about that. Yes, we’re in 9th place, but in football, you always have something to fight for. Our goal is to move up — ideally to 8th, or even 7th if possible.
- Your contract with Kapaz ends this season. Are you planning to stay?
- Right now, I’m fully focused on helping Kapaz in the remaining matches. When I joined, the goal was to avoid relegation, and that’s still our main focus. We’ll talk about the future once the season is over. At this stage, I’m not thinking about or discussing it.
Idman.biz
