Idman.biz
On Monday, September 8, an unprecedented event occurred in the history of the national team: the head coach left his post immediately after the first match of the qualifying round.
Idman.biz reports that Fernando Santos will leave after a 0:5 defeat to Iceland in Reykjavik. Instead, the team will be led by Azerbaijani specialist Aykhan Abbasov.
This is a first for Azerbaijani football, as coaches in our national team have left their posts in the qualifying round before, but never after the first game.
To understand the scale of the current event, it is worth recalling previous cases of coaches of the Azerbaijani national team leaving in the middle of the qualifying round.
Vagif Sadygov - Qualifying round for EURO 2004
On October 27, 2002, Sadygov left his post after two rounds: after losing to Italy (0:2) and Finland (0:3).
Carlos Alberto Torres — Qualifying round for the 2006 World Cup
On June 8, 2005, the Brazilian coach was dismissed after a 0:3 home defeat to Poland. This resignation occurred after the 7th round. Before that, the Azerbaijani team had already lost to England and Poland away.
Shahin Diniyev — EURO 2008 qualifiers
On October 31, 2007, the coach resigned after defeats to Portugal (0:2) and Serbia (1:6) in Baku. At that time, the team had completed eight rounds, including a historic victory over Finland.
Berti Vogts — Qualifying round for EURO 2016
On October 17, 2014, the German coach announced his departure after three defeats at the start, including a 0:6 defeat to Croatia.
Thus, there have been coach changes in the history of the national team during the qualifying round before. But all of them happened after the second, seventh, eighth or third round. Leaving the team after the first match of the stage is a first. Therefore, September 2025 will go down in history as a previously unseen step at the very beginning of the stage.
Teymur Tushiyev
Idman.biz
