"Qarabağ" head coach Qurban Qurbanov expressed his dissatisfaction with the condition of the playing field after their 1:0 victory over "İmişli".
"Qafqazinfo" reports that he stated he did not understand how football was allowed to be played on the grass cover of the stadium at the Quba Olympic Sports Complex:
"The pitch was almost non-existent. It felt like a hockey rink. It slips here, it slips there, you can't give passes. How do they allow football to be played on such a field? A day or two ago, two matches in the Spanish championship were postponed due to the condition of the pitch. Allowing play on such turf... I don't want to talk much. When I raise criticism, they say only 'Qarabağ’s side says something.' That’s why I don’t want to talk much. But neither Qurban nor anyone else needs to see the condition of this pitch. It just can’t be like this...
If we think deeply, there is no way out of everything. There is neither a pitch nor pace, you fear injury, nothing at all... How am I supposed to prepare for the match with "Newcastle" with this game? Now you give the players 3-4 days of recovery training. The players were doubly loaded. It's an excessively discussable topic. All teams complain about this. Can't anything be done? We just sit and wait for when the players will recover from injuries? One falls down holding their foot there, another here. If you talk about anything besides football, it existed."
Q. Qurbanov also spoke about Mateusz Kochalski, who was not on the protocol, and Leandro Andrade, who was injured during the match:
"Kochalski had a micro-injury. That’s why I did not include him in the lineup. Leandro’s situation is such that it’s unclear what the injury is. In general, due to the condition of the pitch, you can’t tell whether the knee is injured or something else. We will find out tomorrow."
The experienced specialist also commented on the incident where Kadi received a red card:
"I didn't know what happened there. The opponent player was pulling Kadi from three meters away. Inevitably, he is human too and reacted. As soon as he came, he was shown a red card. The incident should be looked at from the beginning. The player pushed him with his hand. At least, give a yellow card. I don’t know whether the head referee Javid Jəlilov saw the incident or not, maybe Aliyar Aghayev, who sits in VAR, said something. Aliyar anyway makes interesting decisions in our matches. This is not the first time. Because Javid Jəlilov did not watch. The opponent held him so much that he fell. Maybe he was a bit cautious... Because in the previous match Bahlul Mustafazade was not given a second yellow card leading to a red, and it caused a lot of discussion.
Referees are probably cautious after that so they don’t get criticized. I don’t want to talk much about this topic. But the pitch must be considered. Referees should tell the federation that it is not possible to play matches here. Is this possible? In which century do we live? We have been talking about the development of our football for 25 years. But not on a field like this. I know "İmişli" is a new team, I understand. But they train in Baku, then come and play here. If they train in Baku, let them play there or at another stadium. I say this so that perhaps some step will be taken to improve the stadium, so I can also benefit. But we have no enmity or dependence on anyone. I just say that I will not be ready for the Champions League match with "Newcastle." I say this clearly here. Because today we used up our strength for 3-4 matches. Player recovery will be difficult, will not happen. I didn’t think this much. Honestly, when these clubs come to the League, they were given a year to improve the stadium. This created complacency among them. Yet, when I came to Quba again, I did not know the pitch was this bad. I am very disappointed. I have never been so disappointed recently."