Articles

AZERBAIJAN – BELARUS 1:2 (1:0)

Match for the 7th place

January 12th, 2016, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 150 spectators

Best players: Huseyin Seyligli, Ivan Bahar

Post match comments

Tabriz Hasanov, Head coach of team Azerbaijan:

– What can I say? We've lost. I congratulate the team of Belarus. Our team was making good actions and just got tired in the end of the game. The match was for the 7th place. It was not a final. So even having a lead, I put offensive players to the pitch, so that we wouldn't be sitting in defense.

– We noticed your Football Federation representative on the stands...

– That was a technical director from our Federation. They pay much attention to football and particularly to our team in our country. And this is because we will host the European Championship for this age in May. We are carefully preparing for this event, paying attention to each detail. Valentin Granatkin Memorial gave us much to be grateful for.

– Can you draw a preliminary conclusion on the tournament. What did you manage to achieve and what went wrong?

– Speaking on games, we played well in the matches with Bulgaria and Latvia. The guys were running and seemed fresher. It was the opposite with Slovenia: they were flabbier and conceded much. With Belarus we had two different halves. All this gives us good grounds to correct our mistakes. We have much to work at. Having said that, I am not saying that many mistakes make many guilty. I don't blame anybody. This is football, and there may be lots of mistakes.

Mikhail Markhel, Head coach of team Belarus:

– It was a good game shown by both teams. Naturally, the fatigue played its role and we also had problems with motivation. The level we demonstrated in the first half was not good enough. That's why we had to make substitutions to correct the situation. To my view, such a "shake-up" was helpful and the course of the game changed. We scored two goals and got a win.

– As it seemed your player number 17 (Vitali Lisakovich) was trying to play individually much. Do you support such activities?

– He is a strong player, the one people would say "he can win a game on his own". In terms of team play not everything worked out for him today, especially in the first half. I could say the same about the others. Nevertheless, I think this is a very talented player and there's no sense in placing him into any framework. We trust him and support his individual moves.

– Your team was shown many yellow cards. What's the reason?

– It's the end of the tournament. We are tired physically. And we want to win the last match. And, hence, we see emotions, because the players are young. We have a short bench and we play almost with the same squad. And those on the bench cannot reach the level of the starting eleven.

– As a coach, who do you prefer working with: bright personalities or a team?

– I start with what we have. And we have both: the team and the talented players. There are those who can play and those who we need to supply with the balls. And it's in such a team where I see a sensible balance.

#32 Azerbaijan – Belarus