Sport24.az
"Qarabagh" U-19 team will participate in the main stage of the UEFA Youth League for the second time in its history. I was with the team during the first experience as well. Rashad Sadigov was the head coach at that time". These words were said by Aftandil Hajiyev, the head of the "Qarabagh" club's academy, to Sport24.az.
He shared his thoughts on the goals in the UEFA Youth League:
"We have participated in this tournament before. These competitions are a great experience for young people and coaches. We rarely face such teams".
Hajiyev also spoke about the preparations:
"We have started preparing. Even after the first match against "Ferencváros" in the play-off stage, our hopes were high. Our confidence grew. Preparations are continuing as planned. In our team, that age group finished the last season in third place. We have missing positions in this age group. We have a lot of choices in other groups. We will probably use them as well. We will also include younger players in the application".
The head of the academy also touched upon the possibility of attracting legionnaires to the team:
"We can use foreign players for some positions. This is also in the regulations. Six players who are not from the academy can be registered. Transfer efforts are ongoing. We have difficulties. It is not easy to transfer an 18-year-old player from country to country. We want a few players from Africa. Their paperwork takes a long time. Maybe we couldn't attract the players we wanted to the team in the first round away match against "Benfica". We can use more of our own players. But we will try to bring them as soon as possible. The main team will play 8 matches, and we will play 6. We will not play the last two matches. We will face other teams".
Hajiyev said that he has no information about any of the opponents.
"The first match is with "Benfica", which is what we are thinking about. We saw the schedule two days ago. It is difficult to get information about teams of this age. In some countries, information about young people is not placed on youth platforms. But we will still try to get to know our opponents".
