POINTLESS

Azerbaijan's final game in the knock-out round of Europe-2016 was another miserable one for their fans as they went down 1-0 to Norway in Baku.

After Berti Vogts' resignation as chief coach, the Azerbaijani Football Federations Association (AFFA) handed the running of the national team to his assistant Mahmud Qurbanov. So the match against Norway was a real test for him. It is not surprising that Qurbanov failed to achieve any real turnaround in the form of his team. The fans just wanted to see a good performance, but the Norway match failed to meet their expectations.

Qurbanov sprung a surprise with his starting line-up, playing second-choice keeper Salahat Agayev in goal instead of the usual Kamran Agayev, although bearing in mind Kamran's mistakes in the latter games of the national championship one could understand the coach's choice.

But it is a bit difficult to understand the absence in the starting line-up of one of the country's best defenders, Badavi Huseynov, and also Qarabaq's Qara Qarayev. As the game went on the fallacy of these decisions by the coach, who also left out Dmitriy Nazarov at the start, was borne out.

The game against Norway began with Azerbaijan on top, Araz Abdullayev in particular creating problems on the right wing. But on the left, Vaqif Cavadov was practically unnoticed. Meanwhile, the Norwegians were dangerous on the counter-attack, and this led to them taking the lead in the 25th minute when Nordtweit headed home from a corner. Norway almost scored again but this time luck was with the Azerbaijanis.

The Azerbaijani defence showed plenty of grit but the rest of the team failed to impress and they were unable to create any dangerous opportunities in the whole 90 minutes. They had no-one to finish off their moves. This being the case, Qurbanov could have made some changes to try and turn things round but the same line-up came out for the second half. So when he brought on Nazarov and Qarayev it was too late to change the course of the match. Azerbaijan failed to create a real goalscoring opportunity throughout the 90 minutes and were deservedly beaten 1-0 by Norway.

The game brought to light a few things. Mahmud Qurbanov, ten times a champion in Azerbaijan, is not ready to lead the national side. It is a good thing that Mahmud himself recognizes this. As far as the players are concerned, the bulk of the team must be replaced. Those who are not quick enough to switch to counter-attack and who come off second best in tackles must give way to the younger generation. Young players can be forgiven for making mistakes, but experienced players have only themselves to blame if they fail to leave their mark.

The occasion proved too much for Salahat Agayev, who was making his second appearance for the national side. Qurbanov put his faith in the Inter keeper because of his height, which should have stood him in good stead against the tall Norwegian strikers. Unfortunately, Agayev could only cope with one of the three dangerous shots he faced. Twice he erred in coming out and he was beaten by his near post. The defenders Rasad Sadixov, Elvin Yuniszada and Maksim Medvedev gave a sound performance, but Mahir Sukurov tired by the end of the match and could not keep up with the play, and Ruslan Abisev's lack of pace meant the Azerbaijanis could not organize counter-attacks. And what was the point of putting high balls into the penalty area where the visitors were much taller than the Azerbaijanis and better in the air? Many of Ruslan's passes also went astray and Rahid Amirquliyev failed to impress either in defence or attack. Araz Abdullayev, Vaqif Cavadov, Cavid Imamverdiyev and Rauf Aliyev did not look like international players. Although Qara Qarayev tried to look cool when he came on as a sub his passing let him down. It was only the appearance of Nazarov that changed the situation a bit. Through his skill in keeping possession he would draw two Norwegians towards him, opening up space for his colleagues, but his efforts were in vain.

This defeat meant that Azerbaijan ended 2014 without a point in their group. Of the 53 countries competing in the knock-out stage of Euro-16 only three teams are pointless at the moment. And among these, unfortunately, are Azerbaijan, along with Andorra and Gibraltar. We are ahead of these teams only through goal difference.

Strangely, Qurbanov was happy with his team's performance at the post-match press conference: "We wanted to get a point, but Norway's defence prevented that. I am happy with the team. The players had the desire. The idea was to create opportunities by short passing. But our opponents took advantage of our error."

This match showed that the national team has big problems. The next match will not be until next year. You can be sure that the team will have a new coach by then, and, more than likely, he will be a foreigner.