Sport24.az
The Professional Football League has prepared an interview with Mammadali Mammadov, who was the head coach of the "Inshaatchi" (Baku) team, the winner of the first Azerbaijan Cup. Sport24.az reports that he touched upon many interesting points related to the final match:
"If we are talking about 1992, that year was historical for us. We didn't have any star players in our team. We tried to show our strength by playing collectively. We were a team worthy of winning the cup."
Mammadov also spoke about his interesting dialogues with the club manager before the final match, as well as about his rivals in the cup:
"The head of the house-building plant, who was our sponsor, gave us a good promise at the meeting held two days before the game. He said that if you win the cup, one of the team members will receive a two-room house, and the others will receive a cash prize. We received a cash prize every time we passed a stage in the cup.
Our opponent in the ¼ final was the "Neftchi" team. I told my players that if we beat "Neftchi", we will win the cup ourselves. We won 2:1 and qualified for the semi-finals. Here, our opponent was "Khazar" (Sumgait), which had the same strength as "Neftchi". We won in the post-match penalty shootout and reached the final. In the final, we defeated "Kur" (Mingachevir) and wrote a glorious history."
"1992 was also a state of war in the country. The teams treated each other with understanding and helped each other. Some time after winning the cup, we went to Tovuz for a game. We were greeted triumphantly with bouquets of flowers. It was an unforgettable feeling. We were disappointed that we lost some of our players. But the season was memorable because we wrote our name in history."
"Every year when the cup final is held, I feel emotional when the commentators mention the name of the "Inshaatchi" team. Although that team no longer exists, it still lives in our hearts."
