REHERSAL FOR EURO 2020

The U17 European Championship held in Baku can be effectively considered a dress rehearsal for Euro 2020, some of the games of which Azerbaijan's capital city will host.

UEFA functionaries highly praised the way the championship was organized. They said that organization, infrastructure, the relationship between the AFFA and UEFA teams, in one word, all components were first-rate.

The U17 European Championship made it possible to test all infrastructure built over the past few years.

The Olympic Stadium, Bakcell Arena, Dalga Arena, Azersun Arena - all of these stadiums, which hosted the European Championship games - have been built in the past few years. Five training venues were made available to the teams - three at Neftci base, one in the Olympic Stadium, and one at the Dalga base of the country's national team.

It was a second big experience for the local organizing committee. The first tournament on this level - the FIFA U17 Women's World Cup - was held in 2012. Together with the recent European Championship, these two tournaments are an important experience for the organizing committee in terms of preparations for Euro 2020.

What is so memorable about the recent U17 championship for European football? Like in any tournament, stars started shining here as well. Portugal's Jose Gomes attracted special attention. He scored seven goals in five matches. At this pace, he could transfer from Benfica to a leading European club in the very near future.

Also, a new record was set in the Azerbaijan-Portugal opening game, in terms of the number of spectators of U17 European championships. A total of 33,000 spectators attended the match.

UEFA also saw for itself the excellent organization of the final stage of the European Championship. If requested, Baku could host the finals of the Champions League or of the Europa League at the very highest level in the Olympic Stadium.

As for the games in the European Championship, in particular, the Azerbaijani national team, the first game against the future winners of the tournament, the Portuguese national team, was a wake-up call for the home team.

The Azerbaijani team lost to their peers from Portugal 0:5, missing the first three goals during the first 25 minutes.

This score showed the difference in the level of training and also that the Azerbaijani football players were nervous. The team were effectively not ready for the European Championship precisely from a psychological point of view.

In the second game, the Azerbaijani national team drew with the Belgians (1:1), and in the third game they managed to defeat the Scottish team (1:0). But the four points scored were not enough to leave the group, where the Azerbaijani team came in third.

On the whole, the team's performance can be assessed as satisfactory. But we must concede that only Murad Mahmudov, Metin Guler and Farid Nabiyev can count on places in U19 and U21. The other members of the team did not do anything particularly special.

The main problem for the U17 is nervousness at the start. Understandably, the young Azerbaijani football players do not possess the technology or speed that their peers on the Portuguese and Spanish national teams have. Their strength was only enough for fight in one half. However, we should note that the fact that our footballers were the home team made them excessively nervous.

The result of the European Championship showed that the Azerbaijani national team needs serious reforms. Next year, the team is to experience change of generations. The new coaching staff should approach their training in a comprehensive manner. If these players are not included in the U19 team in two years, it will mean that the work on U17 was useless.

Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Germany were a success in the Baku-hosted continental championship. The young football players on these teams have now shown that they have good prospects. The fans of these countries do not have to worry about the future of their teams as there is a worthy replacement for the current generation.

AFFA Secretary-General Elxan Mammadov has commented for R+ on the performance of the Azerbaijani national team in the tournament: "Participation in the final stage of a European championship is a success for any football federation. As regards the sporting results, our team only lost one game. And the team that defeated our players became a European champion."

He noted that hosting the tournament, in which 16 strongest European teams participated, was a great experience. "It is necessary to analyse how this country will benefit from organizing these kinds of tournaments. This was the main idea both before and in the course of the championship, and we can now talk about what the European Championship left us. First of all, I want to mention the venues. Because of the championship, five new training venues were arranged - three at the Ismat Qayibov base, one in the Baku Olympic Stadium, and one at the training centre of the national team. The covering in the stadium of the State Academy for Physical Training and Sports was also replaced," Mammadov said.

He said that the tournament also generated publicity for the country: "The TV channels Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 broadcast the matches of the championship. Europe's sporting community watched the championship games. Years later, the young men who played in our stadiums will become world celebrities. This is the championship where the stars began to shine," Mammadov said. He added that Baku is now ready to host the Euro 2020 games.