JUST A SINGLE POINT

Azerbaijani national football team completed the qualifying stage of the 2020 European Championship with one point only. Having been defeated by Slovakia in the last game (0:2), the students of Nikol Yurchevich updated the anti-record of the team after 24 years.

What's going on?

In other words, Azerbaijani national team will not be able to play in the European Championship, which will also be held in Baku. Why does our team become the weakest in the group every year? There are many questions. We will try to find answers to at least some of them.

The national team has long been known for unsuccessful experiments. The team does not have European-class players, let alone an appropriate level of tactical and physical preparedness. After Euro 2020, the team will have to be re-formed. But how? Neither experts nor the responsible persons have any answers.

Obviously, the main responsibility for the lack of results lies with the head coach. Appointing Nikola Yurchevich as the head coach of the national team was a risky decision. However, there is just a handful of players who can play for the national team. Does it make sense to blame the coach only? Selecting 11 good players from only eight clubs participating in the domestic championship is not an easy task. Clubs do not work on developing children's football, as if not interested in preparing a new generation of players. They are only interested in making progress at the expense of legionnaires. No comment!

Following the results of the Euro 2020 qualification round, Azerbaijan is in the 53rd position among the 55 UEFA member states! Even Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Faroe Islands and Malta had more points! That is why the results of the selection cycle must be seriously analysed, the causes of the fiasco determined and publicly announced.

Nothing has changed

Let's go back and recall the performance of the national team at the qualification stage of the 2018 World Cup. Under the leadership of Robert Prosinecki, the team scored 7 points in 3 matches. Fans had a brief moment of grief only in the fourth game with the team of Northern Ireland. Azerbaijani clubs had a relatively successful period in its history at that time only. Along with Garabagh, Gabala FC also won a ticket to the group stage of the Euroleague for two seasons in a row.

Back in 2017, when we heard rumours about proposals to Prosinecki, the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) had to negotiate with him the terms of a new contract. After all, AFFA had only a few months before the contract expired, given that the coach considered other proposals. We could not miss such a specialist. However, Prosinecki did not see a new contract, and left the team soon.

His place was offered to the head coach of Garabagh, Gurban Gurbanov, who is very popular in Azerbaijan. At that time, Garabagh for the first time in its history, and so far the only time, made its way into the group stage of the Champions League.

Preparatory period for Euro 2020 has begun, four matches of which will be held in Baku. Azerbaijan has a great chance to get a historical ticket to the championship. It seemed as if UEFA had specially invented and launched the League of Nations for Azerbaijan so that our country, as one of the 12 host countries, would be represented by its team. It is even possible that the team lost the final matches of the qualification round of the 2018 World Cup in order to play in League D. It is no coincidence that the Azerbaijani team was a favourite of the weakest league at the draw of the League of Nations.

So, Gurban Gurbanov was appointed head coach of the Azerbaijani team. They had to play with the national teams of Malta, Kosovo and the Faroe Islands in the League of Nations. To prepare for them, training camps were organised and friendly matches were held. But the team failed to achieve the goal. The Kosovo team took the first place in the group. Actually, it defeated the Azerbaijani team in the last game (4:0). However, not only this defeat, but also two draws with Malta prevented our team from leaving the group. It was the Malta team that nullified all our hopes, not Kosovo!

Could we expect that a team that missed such an opportunity would be able to win a ticket to Euro 2020? Yes, in the fight against the national teams of Croatia, Wales, Slovakia and Hungary...

What to do?

Exactly a year ago, Gurbanov was replaced by Nikola Yurchevic as the head coach of the Azerbaijani national team. And nothing has changed. Again, many consider the change of the head coach the most optimal solution in the current situation. "One point can be earned without a coach," proponents of this approach say.

However, changing the head coach is not a solution for all the problems of the Azerbaijani team. Azerbaijani football needs deep reforms. It is required to attract the most talented young players to special training sessions. We can prepare a decent backup for the national team in just five years. This is possible, for example, based on the Icelandic model.