Azerbaijan Football Captain Recalled ‘Victories’ Against Armenian Team

Captain of Azerbaijan’s national football team, Rashad Sadikhov, admitted his team’s players are upset by the fact that the Armenian and Georgian teams’ stats are much more encouraging than those of Azerbaijan’s squad, reports Regnum, citing Azerisport.

“We are also frustrated by the fact that our neighbors are doing better than us. But look at the groups that they’ve got and compare them with ours. I don’t so much mean the Georgians as much as the Armenians. I think they’ve had three games at home, while we have had just one. I just want to encourage fans to be patient and wait for the end of the period, and not to forget that we’ve always achieved victory in matches with those same Armenians,” he said.

Note, neither the youth nor national teams of Armenia and Azerbaijan have ever played against each other. Earlier, a lottery draw resulted in Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s national teams appearing in the same group, but during the Euro 2008 qualifiers, their matches were cancelled, recalled Regnum.

At the time, Armenia’s team was the first to go to Baku after which Azerbaijan’s team would travel to Yerevan for the second match. Azerbaijan, refusing to provide security guarantees for the match in Baku, insisted that both matches be played on neutral territory.