AZERBAIJAN: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Germany and Azerbaijan prepare for Euro 2012 qualifier in Baku

Record ID: 217946

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Germany and Azerbaijan prepare for Euro 2012 qualifier in Baku
  • Date: 7th June 2011
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (JUNE 5, 2011) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS AZERBAIJAN NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM TRAINING AZERBAIJAN SOCCER TEAM COACH BERTI VOGTS WATCHING TRAINING VARIOUS AZERBAIJAN NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM TRAINING NEWS CONFERENCE WITH AZERBAIJAN NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (German) AZERBAIJAN SOCCER TEAM COACH BERTI VOGTS, SAYING: "We couldn't dem
  • Embargoed: 22nd June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA4M8EDNO13AGWAVF03QOR98ZCD
  • Story Text: Germany's unbeaten soccer team arrived in Baku on Monday (June 6), targeting a seventh consecutive win in the Euro 2012 qualifiers on Tuesday (June 7), with the fate of host team Azerbaijan's under-fire coach perhaps dependent on the game's outcome.
    The Germans, with six wins from six games in Group A, are to face their former coach Berti Vogts in Azerbaijan -- probably the last thing they would have wanted at this stage of the campaign.
    At the end of a long season and without midfield dynamos Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Kehdira, Germany coach Joachim Loew is pushing for another win that would all but seal their qualification for next year's tournament in Poland and Ukraine.
    His only out-and-out forward, Mario Gomez, has been in superb form in recent months and could add to his 45-goal tally that includes strikes for club and country in all competitions in the past season. Gomez struck twice against Austria.
    Germany's players have scarcely had a rest after the exertions of the World Cup in South Africa last year.
    Loew believes they been suffering a knock-on effect ever since and were at 'the limit of their strength' after their 2-1 in Austria on Friday Although Germany thumped Azerbaijan 6-1 earlier in the group and have scored 12 goals in three meetings with the former Soviet republic, Loew has warned his runaway group leaders against complacency.
    Germany's team manager, Oliver Bierhoff at a news conference on Monday sounded confident, but said that Loew would be careful about which players he would use.
    "Loew is going to put only the very best players out on the field. We will react depending on how the match goes. I want to say that this is very good, that we have a very good situation in the group. But on the other hand we want to show ourselves to Europe. We want to show how good we are, what beautiful football we play, and we'll try to achieve that against a team like Azerbaijan. On the other hand this is an official match and we are really serious about it," Bierhoff said.
    Azerbaijan's 1-0 win against Turkey gave the former Soviet republic their only points in the group so far.
    Azerbaijan's soccer coach Berti Vogts has been under fire in Azeri media following his team's disappointing run. On Sunday Vogts was attacked by three men during a news conference in Baku.
    The German has said he will still coach the team on Tuesday despite the incident.
    At a news conference on Sunday (June 5) Vogts expressed his disappointment with his team's recent performance in a Euro 2012 qualifying match with Kazakhstan, saying he hoped they'd do better in Tuesday's game.
    "We couldn't demonstrate the game we want in the match with Kazakhstan. The players didn't have enough aggression. I hope that we will see this in the match with Germany. There's no point to talk about the strength of your rival. We just need to go out on the field and fight to the end," Vogts said.
    Azerbaijan player, Ruslan Abishov also expressed his lack of confidence in his team's ability to match Germany.
    "We have the game with Germany coming up. It's really difficult from a psychological point of view. But we feel like it's our fault, and we'll try to show a good game," Abishov said.
    Pressure on Vogts, who won the 1974 World Cup as a player, has been mounting since his team's 2-1 defeat to bottom-placed Kazakhstan on Friday that left them with three points from five matches in qualifying Group A.
    FIFA President Josef Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini were also in Baku on Tuesday to to commemorate the Azerbaijan Football Association's 100th birthday and attend the opening ceremony of new stadium "Dalga" on the outskirts of Azerbaijan's capital city.
    The new stadium will host the womens (U-17) world soccer championship in 2012.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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