Gianni De Biasi: I had three offers

Gianni De Biasi, head coach of the Azerbaijani national football team, has spoken about the offers he did not accept when he stayed in the Azerbaijani national squad.

He spoke about his rivals for the Euro 2022 qualifying round, Azerisport.com reports.

"To be honest, I had other options - three offers. One from another national team and two from Italian clubs. We were not as lucky in the draw as Albania, for example. It has happened to me before with the national team of Albania at the draw of EURO 2016. We got a very tough group, but in the end, we managed to get through the qualification. I hope we will do the same together with Azerbaijan this time. Although I think it will be very difficult to achieve.

I think all the matches in our group will be very hard. Belgium is a team with big stars who were the first team in the FIFA ranking. They have top-level players in their squad. As for Sweden, it's a powerhouse with players playing in the best leagues in Europe. As for Austria, it is also a very strong team with not only players like Alaba, but also other guys who play in the Bundesliga. And for my team and my players, most of whom play in the local league, it is a very difficult task. But in saying that, I am not stating that we are giving up. We will play and do our best to achieve our goals.

The level of the Azerbaijani championship is getting better every year, we have good players. The only problem is that we do not have much choice. This year the championship consists of 10 teams, and these teams are allowed seven legionnaires on the field. That leaves me with four players to choose from each team and that's a total of 40 players," De Biasi said.