THE ITALIAN'S FIASCO

The Azerbaijani national football team have had an extremely poor start to the European Championship qualifiers. The team led by Gianni De Biasi lost first to Austria (1-4) and then to Sweden (0-5) in the 2024 European Championship qualifying round. The devastating defeat showed that the national team is still in regress.

Austria: wrong tactics

Before the meeting with the Austrians, experts believed that the national team would play this cycle with 5 defenders, because both the Austrian and Swedish teams are considered to be quite fast. Their players can change the course of the game very quickly. Therefore, a five-back line-up would be the most suitable option. But Gianni De Biasi decided otherwise. The 4-3-3 winning scheme of the last five games has probably caught the head coach in apparent euphoria. The Italian coach decided to use this model also against Austria and Sweden.

The starting line-up for the game against Austria was not ideal. Let's start with the choice of goalkeeper. The fans of football expected the fairly experienced Salahat Aghayev or Emil Balayev to defend the goal in the match against Austria, because Yusif Imanov appeared on the field only in the matches of the Premier League. From the first minutes of the match the young player looked confused. And the recurrent errors by defenders made his task even more difficult. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that Yusif made several saves.

In fact, the national team's defeat cannot be attributed solely to the weakness of goalkeeper. The team's performance was undoubtedly one of the most mediocre in its history.

Another fault in the match against Austria was the appearance of Bakhtiyar Hasanalizade. The defender has not played for the Sabah club for over a month because of his injury. Hasanalizade just recently recovered from an arm injury. Therefore, a decision to include the physically and mentally unfit player into the starting line-up was unwarranted. But De Biasi did, and he paid the price for it. Hasanalizade's gross errors were not the least of factors that contributed to the team's defeat.

Unsuccessful plans against Swedes

The game against Sweden showed that De Biasi had learned from his mistakes. He swapped four players in the squad. He replaced Yusif Imanov with Emil Balayev, Bakhtiyar Hasanalizade with Anton Krivotsyuk, Eddie Israfilov with Alexei Isayev and Ozan Can Kokcu with Tural Bayramov. What was the result? Let's start with the goalkeeper again. If the coach trusted Yusif in the first game, it was better to leave him in the second one. After all, the young goalkeeper would no longer be as nervous as he was in the game against Austria and could be more confident. But perhaps De Biasi thought Imanov was the main reason of the previous defeat and replaced him with Balayev. And he made a mistake again. The Swedes' first goal was a result of a gross mistake by the goalkeeper of Sabayil FC.

Replacing Bakhtiar was perhaps a right decision. Because everyone saw the Sabah player's mistakes in the first game. But Anton Krivotsyuk didn't perform confidently enough either. His mistakes also caused occasional problems for the national team. We can also understand the replacement of injured Eddie Israfilov by Alexei Isayev. But it was not quite right to include a creative player instead of a holding midfielder. Logically, Eddie should have been replaced by Elvin Jamalov. And De Biasi, expecting to get the necessary points, released on the filed a squad of attacking players with no tendency to defend.

One can understand that the tactical scheme associated with the starting line-up was flawed. But it is difficult to understand why the players did not fulfil their functions. We have been watching De Biasi for three years and know about his love for experimentation. But usually rotations are done in test matches so that players can get used to their new positions.

In almost both games the players performed below their potential. The driving force of club players seemed dull and helpless in the national team. This can be explained, of course. Apparently, it was the head coach's mistakes that prevented the players from showing their best performance.

Conceding nine goals in two games is a real tragedy for national football. Gianni De Biasi's team has suffered a complete fiasco. As things stand, our team's leaving the group stage can be a miracle, which is unlikely to happen. But at least the coach can release on the field a team that keeps fighting. Otherwise why do we need him? Maybe a professional with so many mistakes in two games should resign?

Is resignation an adequate response?

In this case, there is a question: what will the head coach's replacement change? It is unlikely that any coach will be able to save the Azerbaijani national team. The departure of the Italian coach will only save AFFA somewhat financially. If there are no highly professional players in the national team, what is the point of having an expensive foreign coach?

Sarkhan Hajiyev, Secretary General of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), acknowledged in his interview the poor performance of the national team. According to him, the fate of Gianni De Biasi as head coach will soon become clear: "The [national] team showed a weak performance in both games. We started well. But after our opponent scored the first goal, the game broke down. The national team could not get mobilised. AFFA was very disappointed. The coaches, the players were also very disappointed with the result. Now we are awaiting the report of head coach Gianni De Biasi. At this stage, the question of the coach's dismissal is not on the agenda. I think he will serve out his contract until the end. There will be a meeting of the executive committee in the coming days. De Biasi's report will be heard at the meeting and his performance will be discussed."

The fact that the Azerbaijani team conceded 9 goals in two games does not allow us to be optimistic about the team's play in the near future. It is a pity that the time, which is more than one year, has been wasted. The work of children's football schools is not organised at a proper level, there are no good players for the national team. And it is logical that the national team take to the pitch only to lose. As for the results of friendlies, they have no value. The national team's performance in official matches can be compared to that of runners with disabilities.