Sport24.az
"You should never look down on any opponent. Respect for the opponent in football comes before anything else."
Sport24.az reports that Emrah Çelikel, the CEO and member of the Board of Directors of "Qarabağ", said this in his statement to Telegraf while commenting on the statements of Gigi Becali, the owner of the Romanian representative FCSB.
According to the draw held on July 21, if "Qarabağ" beats Ireland's "Shelbourne" and FCSB beats North Macedonia's "Shkendija", the winning teams will face each other in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.
After the draw, Becali made a statement in a derogatory manner about Azerbaijani football and its representative: "We have a good chance. How can you say you want to get into the Champions League if you don't beat 'Qarabağ'? They are not at our level, and their football is not comparable to ours. They have lost their players and are out of rhythm. We will crush them! It's good that we will play the first game at home – we will win 2:0 or 3:0 to secure a place in the play-offs."
Çelikel, who said that he was familiar with the statement of the FCSB official, reminded that the Romanian representative had already lost the first match of the second qualifying round to "Shkendija" with a score of 0:1: "Becali made this statement before the game they lost. I can say that respect for the opponent comes before anything else. We are currently thinking about today's game. We can only talk and think about the next stage after the return match with 'Shelbourne'. In general, we go to every game to get the highest result."
To the question "Maybe Becali made this statement because they won against 'Qarabağ' in Baku with a score of 3:2 in the Europa League last season and don't you think he disrespected your club?", the CEO of the Aghdam club reacted like this: "You should ask him. I think by paying attention to such statements, we can deviate from our goal. We have always said our word on the field."
