Match № 10

The match № 10, group stage, third tournament day.

AZERBAIJAN – CZECH REPUBLIC 1:1 (0:1)

January 7th, 2013, Saint-Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 400 spectators

Referees: Alexander Ksenafontov, Kirill Bolshakov, Pyotr Miroshnichenko

Azerbaijan: Aliev (c), Mammadov Sh., Guliev, Badalov, Abdeullazada, Aleskerov, Diniyev (Rzayev, 77), Alieyev (Nagiev, 74), Nasirli (Talybov, 85), Karaev (Nasirov, 46), Jamaladdinov

Head coach: Arif Asadov

Czech Republic: Jehlichko (Krasny, 46), Vondra, Shevchik, Richter (Kaiser, 46), Prosek (Held, 60), Holzer, Brosh (Kadlec, 66), Hrdlicka (Shashinka, 60), Hulka (c), Matushek, Shpavelko

Head coach: Josef Csaplar

Goals: Hrdlicka (12), Nasirli (53)

Yellow cards: Nasirov (48), Prosek (59), Alieyev (71), Guliev (71), Vondra (73), Shashinka (85), Aleskerov (89)

Red cards: Nasirov (70, 2nd yellow card)

Best players: Sadig Guliev, Daniel Holzer

After match comments

Head coach of the team Azerbaijan Arif Asadov:

– At the beginning of the match our players were not very active, probably that was the fear of the opponent – the team of the Czech Republic. So in the first half we were playing in defense, preferring to use counter attacks. But later on we've changed our tactics and became more initiative. What's more, the number of substitutions helped us to improve the play. In the first half we relied on the one midfielder, in the second half we've substituted him and started to play in the centre already more confident. What's more, after one of our players was sent off, the team didn't lose the speed and kept on competing. What's for the red card, we think there was no fault deserving the second yellow card. But the referee had different view to this situation. It looked that he forgot that our player has already got one yellow card. He was told about that but it was already late. And those players who argued with the referee also got yellow cards. Though, they could avoid this.

Head coach of the team Czech Republic Josef Csaplar:

– I'm disappointed in both the results and the game quality. We played good in the first half, scored a goal, controlled the game, but the second half was terrible. Azerbaijan was better technically and physically. The opponent managed to get into the second half and we didn't. We tried to keep the same style as it was in the first half, but we failed. We made substitutions, but they couldn't help either. It was necessary for us to play more offensive. But we were making mistakes in passes and couldn't control the ball, and without the ball there's no winning. The opponent controlled the ball better and we failed to take it over.