Alexander Kuznetsov: «I would like to note the QJ League, which helps the players of the national team to be in good shape»

- Firstly, I want to thank our fans for their support, those who were at the screens and those who came to the stadium.

 

Tournament of a very high level, rivals from the top football countries of three continents. This allows the players to see the different styles of the participants' teams. This is a great experience for our guys, despite the small number of days for preparation and a long flight.

 

We seriously prepared for the first match, the Portuguese national team needs no introduction. We analyzed in detail their style of play, conveyed to the guys all the nuances that will help counteract their strong side and chose their plan of action for the game. I can say that I am pleased with the dedication of the guys, we made the Portuguese nervous. Episodes were good moments in the game, in attack. They interacted well, maintained the structure.

 

Of course, the level of individual skill of the Portuguese is very high, and they played enough on their goals, I think we should have scored more. I don’t want to discuss refereeing, I need to watch the episodes when the referee canceled Valgushev’s goal, appointed a penalty to our goal and in the same episode did not appoint an opponent to the goal. A fair score of the match in my opinion should have been 3:3.

 

We must work even harder, we are only at the beginning of our journey. Now the task is to recover and prepare for the remaining matches, we are waiting for the game with the youth team of Saudi Arabia. The opponent is older, but this should not stop us, we came to gain experience and improve team actions.

 

I will immediately answer many comments on some players, in particular on Ramazan Bagdat, he is a year younger and will definitely be involved in the national team of his age. We're watching him and we'll give him a chance, everything has its time. At the moment, there are players in his position who play in the First League, and those who have international experience in the national team.

 

Arup Sautov has already got his chance in the youth team, then you should ask him why he is not involved. One thing I can say is that the guy is young and anything can happen, if he continues to work in the same direction, then he will get his chance for the next cycle.

 

I would like to note the QJ League, which helps the players of the national team to be in good shape and our coaching staff to keep track of the players. Many thanks to the Freedom QJ League and KFF media services for their support and for helping to popularize football and reveal new names for fans.