ACCEPTED GOAL

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has praised the performance of Azerbaijani FC Qarabag, which stopped short of getting into the Europa League round of 32 because of a referee error. Aliyev, who received the members of the club, said that Qarabag represented the country in the Europa League with credit.

"You give our people the joy of victory. In particular, your games in the latest competitions and the competitions of the Europa League deserve the highest praise. The budgets of clubs playing in the same group as you are many times higher than your budget, perhaps, more than 10 times. But in life, sports and politics, finances do not decide everything. Your attachment to the motherland, patriotism, professionalism and will have caused all these victories. You played very successfully with all teams and gained victories. Anyone interested in football in Azerbaijan and in the world knows and sees that you deserved great victories. But these victories were shamelessly taken away from you. Such injustices and such dishonesty before the eyes of the world perhaps rarely occur in the history of football. Of course, I know that you, the fans and the people of Azerbaijan are disappointed, first of all because you deserved this victory," the president of the country said at the meeting.

In connection with the successful performance of the club on the European scene, Qarabag was allocated 1m manats from the reserve fund of the president. In addition, a site was allocated for the construction of a football academy for FC Qarabag.

The main creator of the successful performance of Qarabag is the head coach Qurban Qurbanov. After the completion of games in the Europa League, the club focused on the national championship, but despite his busy schedule, Qurbanov answered questions from R+.

- First of all let me congratulate you on your successful performance in the Europa League. You probably received a lot of congratulations?

- We're doing our job. We're trying to represent Azerbaijan in Europe with credit. In the last game we really wanted to win, but unfortunately it didn't happen.

- President Ilham Aliyev praised the successful performance of Qarabag in the Europa League. The meeting with the head of state will be a great incentive...

- I thank Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for taking the time to meet with the team. For each of us it's very pleasing to hear good words from the head of state. Mr President said that he'd been watching the games of Qarabag and the results. The president was both joyful and upset. He was upset that our goal in the last game was disallowed. During the meeting, the president congratulated us on the victory over Italian Inter. He said although the referee disallowed the goal, Qarabag won the game. The meeting with the president stimulated the team even more. Thanks to the attention of the head of state, sports are developing in the country. And we must strive to achieve even greater success in football. We have very pleasant impressions from this meeting. It further increased our responsibility, and we need to continue our success.

- The country is still talking about the Qarabag-Inter game. The goal of Richard Almeida and the referee's decision to disallow it - how much time is needed to forget all this?

- It's hard to say that. I haven't forgotten it yet. I looked through the recording of the whole game, and the episode with the scored goal - probably 40 times. It's hard to talk about those emotions. I wouldn't want to relive that moment, and it's difficult for me to express my feelings in words.

- You reviewed that episode. Can you confidently say that it was a clean goal? Personally, I didn't see any violations there.

- After the match, Inter players also told us that Almeida scored within the rules. The replay showed a clean goal. But there's no point in saying anything. The decision was made. At that moment, the chief referee should have taken responsibility for the decision.

- So, before the eyes of 34,000 fans, Qarabag was robbed of a well-deserved victory...

- Qarabag should forget that game. Otherwise, there will be problems in the future. I thank all fans for their support. They didn't leave us without attention this whole season. They supported us in every game until the end. I'd never want my team to let down our fans. They deserve great victories. I've always said that they made a great contribution to our 2:1 win over Salzburg at home. At that match, the fans gave us tremendous support. And in the game with Inter, we had hope until the very end, but failed, though we wanted to please our people...

- On that day, bookmakers took bets on the victory of Qarabag in the amount of 251m dollars. Could this factor affect the game? On the other hand, they say that UEFA supported Ukraine because of the deterioration in relations between the West and Russia.

- I can't say that the referee made a mistake. The linesman and the referee behind the goal saw everything very well. But we have no evidence on hand. Therefore, it's difficult to say anything. At that time, the chief referee should have taken responsibility. But he didn't do that. Our entire team asserted that the goal was scored within the rules. But the referee didn't change his decision. Perhaps, it was supposed to be this way.

- We can say that we felt for 14 seconds that we were in the Europa League round of 32. Everyone thought that Qarabag won...

- We didn't think about the round of 32. Everyone was happy about the victory over Inter. Unfortunately, everything changed later, which upset us very much. It's important to get a grip on yourself after such an injustice. For a long time, this game will be in the memory of the players and fans.

- But Qarabag was very close to a historic success. There may not be such a chance next season.

- In football, any result is possible. The referee made a decision. And now, there's no point in analyzing it. UEFA will not change the result because of a referee mistake. Football players may think that they no longer will be able to reach that stage. But everything must be forgotten. Only in this case, can we continue our successful performance.

- How would you rate the last season in general?

- In my opinion, it turned out well. After a long break, Qarabag became the champion. In the Europa League the main task was to make it into the group stage. And we achieved our goal. Until the last game we had a chance to get into the round of 32. And this is also a good indicator. In the championship, we are leaders and can go for the winter break in first place. Therefore, 2014 can be considered successful.

- But for the national team this year was not successful. We lost all the qualifying round games.

- There are both positive and negative sides. During the year, there were good games and defeats. The main thing is to ensure that 2015 is a good one. Therefore, I wish success to the new head coach. We all want success for the national team of Azerbaijan.

- Can we see you at the head of the national team in the future?

- (Laughs) Being in Qarabag, we're working for the success of the national team. Each club is trying to prepare the players for the main team. Now all my thoughts are related to Qarabag.

- Will Qarabag be able to repeat this success in 2015?

- The fans always expect us to win. They understand that there's a chance to win and therefore put forward such claims. This year both Qarabag and Neftci played in the play-off of the Europa League. This is an indicator of the development of football in the country. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev supports us. I think it will be possible not only to repeat our success, but also go further. We have to work. We must forget about the success of this year. In the coming year, there's the Azerbaijan Championship and European Cups. Qarabag is not an easy team. Working in it is a big responsibility.