"WE WILL PLAY TO BEAT ISRAEL"

The qualifying stage of the 2014 World Cup kicks off in September. For the Azerbaijani national team, it will start with a match with Israel. On 7 September, the national team will meet with Israel in Baku, and four days later, they will be guests of the Portuguese national team. Recently, Azerbaijan won a friendly against Bahrain with a score of 3-0 in Baku, and after that, in his comments to the Israeli media, the Israeli head coach Eli Gutman called the Azerbaijani footballers "dangerous". We asked the head coach Berti Vogts what kind of danger the Azerbaijani team may pose to its rivals in the qualifying round. We should note in advance that in anticipation of the important matches, the German specialist is full of optimism.

- There are just a few days left to the qualifying round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Azerbaijani team will play its first two matches with Israel and Portugal. How have your players prepared for these games?

- Immediately after the meeting with national team players at the Football Academy, we began to prepare. The level of training can be judged after a few workouts. Currently, all our attention is focused on the match with Israel. Some idea of the players' potential formed on the basis of the analysis of the latest friendly. But the team that will be playing in official matches has yet to be determined. At the same time, because of weak competition, it is unlikely that there will be major changes. Azerbaijan has very few good players.

- By the way, the win in the friendly with Bahrain with a score of 3-0 inspired the national team players. Can we hope for good luck in the match with Israel?

- Although the national team of Bahrain shows the same kind of play as Israel, the two teams have different levels. The Israeli team is stronger and more experienced. Winning is always nice, but in the match with Bahrain there were mistakes. There are certain shortcomings. The repetition of these errors in the match with Israel will not bring us anything good.

- I guess you mean errors in the defence?

- There were some gaps in the transition from defence to attack. A lot of mistakes were made in the centre of the defence. Seeing the flaws is a good quality. We will try to address these issues before the match. In my opinion, in the match with Israel, our team will be ready to fight for all 90 minutes.

- What challenges has the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) set the national team in the qualifying round?

- We are creating a new team. Our objective is to form a fighting and hardworking team, and it takes a long time to create such a team in football. Therefore, we need time. At the moment, most of the players of the Azerbaijani national team are young. As they gain experience, their performance improves. We will try to play as best as possible and become a headache for strong rivals. Our group includes such strong teams as Russia and Portugal. It will not be easy to play with them.

- Many consider Portugal the favourite in the group...

- At the European Championships, Portugal showed a good performance. Although they were not able to get to the finals, the potential of the team is great. Portugal is indeed the favourite in the group. Of course, Russia will try to compete with Portugal. We should not underestimate Northern Ireland, Wales and Luxembourg either. The concept of a "weak team" no longer exists in Europe. Everybody is trying to score points.

- In that case, how many points do we expect to score in the matches with Israel and Portugal?

- I don't want to make predictions. My team will play to beat Israel. With the support of the fans, we will try to play successfully at home. Only then, can we think about the game with Portugal.

- The team is still short of strikers. Is it hard to find a good striker?

- The best players of the country are invited to the national team. The fact that we score very few goals is the problem of Azerbaijani football in general. In clubs in the national championship, it is mainly legionaries that distinguish themselves. We want to solve this problem. But it is impossible to eliminate all shortcomings in the near future.

- Apparently, with the return of Vaqif Cavadov, the number of goals in our portfolio will increase?

- Let's play and see. I would also like the players to make the most of the situation.

- By the way, you said that you would not invite Cavadov to the national team ...

- This issue has been solved. He is young, is conscious of his guilt and has apologized. And we gave him a second chance. Now we should worry only about the national team's performance.

- We start each qualifying round with hope. And this time, we expect a worthy fight from the national team...

- We want to please the fans. Our first match will be held in Baku. I hope that the fans will not leave us alone with the rival. We play football for them. A full house at the stadium affects the team's performance. The players are even more inspired.

The outcome of the match with Israel is very important for us. We want to go to Portugal in a good mood.