"We cannot be too happy about finishing fourth and qualifying for the Conference League".
Oxu.Az reports that Neftchi captain Emin Mahmudov said this in an interview with Report.
He stated that Neftchi should always compete for the championship: "If someone had told me at the start of the season that you would be happy with fourth place, my answer would have been 'no'. Because we must always fight for the title. We never imagined such a start. But circumstances led us to feel some happiness about fourth place, because things were really not going well for a while. Our goals are bigger. We must fight for the championship every year. Every player joining this team should aim for first place. The main thing is to be at the top. Players should think about that".
The footballer also spoke about Neftchi's battles with Sabah and Qarabag: "Of course, we need to perform consistently. We must continue the same stable performance we showed at the end of the current season. Despite our 1-5 defeat to Qarabag, we never panicked. As a team, we tried to forget that loss because we believed it was accidental. Neftchi is not a team that concedes 5 goals easily. And we won the next match. We must continue this stable performance and pursue success. It is no secret that we were very upset every time we lost to this team. We wondered what we were missing, what we did wrong. This victory was very important for us. And it became clear again that any team can be beaten. Now we will approach future matches with more confidence. I'm not saying we will beat Qarabag every time, but we know we have a chance to win".
Emin Mahmudov also shared his thoughts on the upcoming UEFA Conference League campaign: "First, we need to have a very good training camp in the summer. We will try to achieve the maximum result and qualify for the league stage. Playing just one round in the Conference League and returning is not acceptable. But I must say that a bit of luck is also needed, because we don't know which teams we will face in the qualifying rounds. It is too early to think about that now. The flow of events will show everything. Moreover, the squad must be fully formed. We can talk and think about this after the departures and arrivals are clear. We have a big responsibility. Apart from Qarabag, no Azerbaijani team has performed in the group stage (referring to the league stage) for many years. We want to achieve this success. And we must move towards it step by step. In world football, there is a practice that no matter how good a team is, the squad always changes, renews, and new players come. There is always a need for new players because new motivated players can always benefit the team".
Recall that Neftchi, finishing fourth in the Misli Premier League this season, qualified for the UEFA Conference League qualifying rounds after Sabah won the Azerbaijani Cup.
