Timur Kapadze: "Penalty? I guess I'll finally go on the field and take the penalty myself"

After the victory over the Kyrgyz Republic in the World Cup qualifiers, the head coach of the Uzbekistan national team Timur Kapadze and the best player of the match Hozhiakbar Alijonov attended a press conference.

- First of all, I congratulate all our compatriots on the holiday of Navruz. Today we won. Maybe we could have scored more goals and won more beautifully. But the most important thing was the victory. Maybe if we had scored a goal earlier, the score would have been different. The opponents also defended well. Now we are preparing for the next match.

Hozhiakbar Alijonov: - I congratulate everyone on the victory. Thank you to everyone who supported us. The game went well, as we wanted.

- What did you expect from your first official match? Did you get help from Katanets before this match? Today Shomurodov got a low score. What can you say about that?

- Everything is fine. My assistants are my assistants, not Katanets. We prepared well for the match. The game changed as we expected. After the red card, a lot changed. We knew that our opponents would also fight for points. However, since we were playing at home, we had to win without giving them any chances. Maybe it would have been easier for us if the opponents had 11 men. We had many chances in the first and second half. Maybe we saved the goals for the next matches, but the important thing is that we achieved the result.

- You didn't play for a long time after the injury you sustained in the match against Turkmenistan, who was really to blame for that?

Hojiakbar Alijanov: - It's not your fault or anyone's fault. After the match against Turkmenistan, I played two halves with Iran. Later, I also played in matches for Pakhtakor. Injuries are common in football.

- Jaloliddin Masharipov had a yellow card. He had received a yellow card in similar situations before. In turn, another player who plays in the Iranian championship, Oston Urunov, will not play in Iran either. How do you plan to get out of this situation without these two key players?

- Alikulov himself was called to the training camp. He got injured. Then Oston Urunov came. He hurt his leg during training. Such situations happen in football. We also need to be prepared for such processes. We will think and see. Masharipov was a big loss. They were told everything before the game. We have time in advance, we will try to fill everyone's places. We trust all the players who have been called up to the team.

- There is one step left before the World Cup. Iran defeated the UAE team. We can get 3 points. How are the guys feeling now?

- The mood is great. The last two days have been very tiring. Some guys arrived at the team at the last moments. The main thing is that we achieved a victory and got closer to the goal. We are now preparing for the next game. Because it will not be easy in Iran. We will try to get points there too.

- Shomurodov could not use the penalty during the game. For some reason, the use of penalties has been a problem in Uzbek football recently. What do you think is the reason for this?

- This is not a problem, it is a mental process. He did not take the penalty badly today. The goalkeepers are doing well. Utkir Yusupov also saved us from penalties several times. It's hard to talk about such individual situations. Eldor didn't have any pressure today, he could have kicked to any corner. Maybe if we had scored, it would have been different. In general, it would have been better if we had won the game by a large margin. The main thing is that the match was under our control. Maybe if we had scored, we could have scored more. We played ahead and waited for the situation. I don't think the opponents had any situations.

- According to what we heard, in March the national team was given the task of deciding the World Cup. Some legionnaires returned to Tashkent after the match against Iran and are preparing to celebrate this. How true is this?

- We haven't heard anything about this. So be it. We started training with Iran in mind.

- Until today's match, the national team had always played with 3 central defenders. After the red card, you could have sent off an attacking player. But you kept the three. Is this a sign that you did not want to make changes before the match against Iran or were you afraid of the opponent's counterattack?

- There must be confidence in the defense anyway. In a three-man defense, everyone controls each other. If we played with two central defenders, the midfielders would have to play further back. Maybe in the next games we will play with four defenders. We will see, we will work on the losses.

- We couldn't win at all in the second half. Many corner kicks didn't work. What work is being done in this regard. I also have a question about penalties. When you played, Server Dzeparov was taking penalties. I have another question: Odil Khamrobekov has a good quality of taking the ball away, and Shukurov has a great passing ability. However, we didn't see many passes from the center today. After you put Jaloliddin Masharipov in the center, the number of passes from the center increased.

- Odil also has such passes. It's difficult to pass from the center in a 5-man defense. All my players can do even more than that. We also tested Akmal Mozgovoy today. We'll look at everything and work on it. We didn't have much time. Eldor came a day early, felt tired when he came to the set pieces, and left the training. Maybe if we put the players closer together, the opponents' passes wouldn't go through either.

- The game against Iran will be a life-or-death battle for us. Have you prepared any surprises for this game or will we play our simple style?

- It is not a simple style. We can also play in attack. There have been developments over the past two days. We had good chances in the first half. The loss of Masharipov will be a headache for us. We will give our all for the result. The players are always ready to make changes for the result.

- We have always had problems with penalty shootouts or penalties. Are they working on this?

- Yes, we are paying attention. I think I will finally go out and take the penalty myself. All the players are working extra after training. Eldor could have kicked to the other corner. He kicked well, but the goalkeeper saved it. I think we should discuss this less.

- In today's game, our team had 24 shots and scored only 1 goal. We may not be able to score as many goals in the game against Iran.

- The guys are working hard. The ball dynamics are also good. Tomorrow we will recover, today we will prepare, and the day after that we will go out. When there is time to correct these situations, we will work. It is wrong to compare Iran with this game. We all know what kind of team Iran is. It is not easy to play in "Azodi". The team also has losses. We will try to do everything well.

- It is difficult to envy you as a coach. You do not have enough time to work with the team. There is little time left for the game with Iran. The UEFA has organized many training camps for coaches before you. You have not been given such conditions yet. What did you think about to get out of this situation?

- It is difficult to say one thing. There were no conditions to assemble the team. We waited for FIFA Day, and suddenly it coincided with official matches. The players also arrived close to the game. Since many players were on the road, we couldn't practice hard, we only studied the opponent through theoretical exercises. We only worked on connections in two exercises. Maybe it would have been better if there were two more days. I think this game was useful for us. We knew how the Kyrgyz Republic plays. But Iran plays differently. We will try to cut their games and show them to the players. We reached the game with such difficulties in the national team. Congratulations on the victory. With this, we are close to the World Cup. May we all be blessed to go to the World Cup. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”