Aslan Karimov: "Our chances of beating Iceland seem real"

"We have a chance to win in the match against Iceland."

Idman.biz reports that Aslan Karimov, the head of the Enlightenment Department of Coaches of AFFA, said this in his statement to AZERTAC while talking about the Iceland-Azerbaijan match to be held today in the qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.

He assessed the chances of the Azerbaijani national team against the opponent: "Compared to our other two opponents in the group - Ukraine and France, the Icelandic national team is more suitable for us. Our chances of getting points from them seem more realistic. In my opinion, this team is not at its previous level. There is a significant decline. This factor creates favorable conditions for our national team to win. Last year, in the UEFA Nations League match against Turkey, Iceland created certain difficulties. They conceded a goal only in the last minutes due to a gross mistake by the Icelandic goalkeeper. Overall, they can create danger with fast transitions, counter-attacks, free kicks, and set-piece situations. We must be careful against them. We will probably prefer to have more possession of the ball. We need to be a little more careful in organizing attacks. The opponent has fast players. They can make these transitions fast and create dangerous situations in front of our goal."

The expert said that there are gaps in several positions in the national team: "Our defensive midfielder position is still not encouraging, and the game will often fall on the players in this position. The players in this position must be strong both in attack and defense, and be able to maintain the team's game pace so that we can cope with dangerous opponents. Our wingers have not made a good impression in recent times. After Afran Ismayilov, we almost don't have a player on the wing who can pass and leave the opponent behind. What I have listed are important positions. Because the role of these positions is very important for national teams."

It should be noted that today's Iceland-Azerbaijan match will start at 22:45 Baku time.

Idman.biz