Sport24.az
"There is a shortage of players in the national team. 3 rounds have been played in the championship, and the teams have played in European cups. There are players in the squad who have played little in both European cups and the championship. The players did not have enough strength in the second half." These words were said by Agaselim Mircavadov in his statement to Sport24.az.
The former head coach of the Azerbaijani national team spoke about the big defeat of our national team in the away match against Iceland in the qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup the previous day:
"What does this come from? First, the abolition of the legionnaire limit, and second, the lack of readiness of the players. As soon as the attack was over, everyone was returning to the center, to the second zone. There is a situation when the opponent forces you to do this, and there is a situation when we went ourselves. Iceland did not create much of a problem. They scored the first goal at the end of the first half. It was felt that the players had little game experience and there would be a problem. This needs to be solved. The limit has been abolished. What to do with local children? Fernando Santos has a contract until 2028. Since we are not inside, we cannot say whether he talked to the management about the limit or not. There are many questions. Currently, the head coach and players are to blame. When we switched to counter-attack, the ball did not stay in the middle. Ball possession was in favor of the opponent in the ratio of 71 to 29 percent... This is still Iceland, Ukraine and France are ahead... Although there are many problems, there are solutions. We need to sit down and talk."
It should be noted that the Iceland - Azerbaijan match ended with a 5:0 victory for the home team.
