"Iceland and France are very serious opponents. We will do our best to fight worthily and achieve the best possible result."
These words were spoken by Rufat Abdullazadeh, who was called up to the Azerbaijani national team for the first time, while talking about the matches they will play at home against the Icelandic and French national teams as part of the 2026 World Cup qualifying round.
He stated that playing on their home field would be an additional advantage for them: "Since we will be playing on our own field, we want to take maximum advantage of this factor. We will try to fully implement the instructions of our new head coach," he said in a statement to AZERTAC.
The midfielder, who currently plays for the Croatian club "Varazdin", said that he was happy to be called up to the national team for the first time: "It is a great source of pride, joy and responsibility for me. The biggest dream of every football player is to wear the uniform of his country one day, and this moment evokes very special feelings for me. I have always worked hard before this call, because I know that such opportunities are only earned through hard work and faith. Now my main goal is to show myself in the best possible way in training and be useful to the team. Being here gives me extra motivation and gives me the strength to move forward even further in the future. There are many high-quality players in the team, and being among them is both a great chance and an opportunity to learn for me. I will always do my best to represent Azerbaijani football properly. I hope that this invitation will be the beginning of a long-term national career for me."
It should be noted that the Azerbaijan-Iceland match will start today at 21:00 at the 8th kilometer settlement stadium.