Now — twice champions! Azerbaijan takes Europe’s top trophy again

Well, the long wait is finally over. Our boys from the national futsal team have steadily and determinedly pursued their goal from the very first match of the European Championship — the gold medals. And now the Azerbaijan national futsal team is not only the reigning world champion but also the champion of Europe. Moreover, they have claimed this European title for the second time, once again in Slovakia! After this, it’s hard not to believe in omens…

Yes, dear readers, there is something symbolic in this story. It was in Slovakia, under the same coach — Elshad Guliyev — that Azerbaijan first became European champions in 2022. Then the title went to Serbia, who won the continental championship in 2024. But this year’s tournament has once again returned the European crown to our team. And the road to it went through a semifinal battle with the reigning champions — Serbia — whom the Azerbaijani players defeated in a penalty shootout (1:1, penalties 3:1).

Before that, our players successively defeated Austria (1:0), Italy (3:0), France (3:2), Kazakhstan (3:2) in the Round of 16, and the Czech Republic (5:2) in the quarterfinals.

And in the final at Bratislava’s Tipos Sport Arena, Ukraine were defeated — a team that had produced a sensational run to the final after thrashing the World Cup runners-up Hungary (5:1) in the semifinal.

For Ukraine, this was the first-ever appearance in the final of the European Mini-Football Championship. After their emphatic victory over the runners-up, the team led by Oleksandr Bondar was determined to defeat the reigning world champions as well. But, fortunately for us, those ambitions were not destined to come true.

And that became clear as early as the seventh minute of the match, when, despite tremendous support from Ukrainian fans, it was our team that opened the scoring. Mirmehdi Rzayev took a bold low shot from distance. He struck it — and scored! And at that moment, another superstition seemed to come true: under Elshad Guliyev, Azerbaijan had won six consecutive matches, and in every single one of them they were the first to score. And here it was again — a goal in the seventh minute of the seventh match!

Our players seemed inspired by how the game unfolded and unleashed a wave of attacks on the Ukrainian goal. Even our goalkeeper, Vali Gafarov, got involved — managing both to take shots and to save them.

Our team was warmly supported by fans who stayed with the players from the very first day of the tournament. And, of course, it was especially moving to hear in mini-football as well (particularly at such an important tournament) the chant “Şəhidlər ölməz, Vətən bölünməz!” (Martyrs never die, the Motherland stands united!) — which Azerbaijani supporters traditionally perform in the 44th minute of any football match involving our teams.

I believe it was exactly this chant that inspired our national team to put the final point on the match in added time, when the Ukrainians, throwing caution to the wind, pushed forward together with their goalkeeper in an attempt to equalise. Isa Atayev calmly sent the ball from our own half into the empty Ukrainian net.

The final score — 2:0. A confident victory for the Azerbaijan national team and the second European Championship title in the history of Azerbaijani mini-football.

Here are the 17 heroes of European scale: Aghasaid Gasimov, Ramiz Chovdarov, Isa Atayev, Tamkin Khalilzade, Taleh Babayev, Khatayi Baghirov, Vali Gafarov, Ravan Karimov, Kanan Mirzaliyev, Samir Gamzayev, Elvin Alizade, Mahammad Khalilov, Jafar Jafarov, Vusal Isayev, Ruzigar Ibrahimzade, Mirmehdi Rzayev, Eshgin Taghiyev.

I would also like to express gratitude for this historic victory and the vivid emotions not only to our footballers, but also, of course, to the coaching staff led by Elshad Guliyev — the architect of all the winning titles of our national team — as well as to the leadership of the Azerbaijan Mini-Football Federation headed by Orkhan Mammadov, whose comprehensive support made this success possible.

By Vugar Vugarli, specially for Caliber.Az