“Although we lost the final group match against Lithuania, we won our first two games and secured a place in the Superfinal. With that, we fulfilled our main task,” said Sahib Mammadov, the head coach of the Azerbaijan national beach soccer team, in a statement to AFFA’s press service, Offsideplus.az reports.

He assessed the matches played in Spain as part of the first qualifying round of the European Championship (EBSL) and discussed the team’s future objectives:

“I would attribute the result against Lithuania to fatigue. We had to expend a lot of energy in the first round match against England. Regardless of the result against Lithuania, we had already secured a place in the Superfinal. That final match was only to determine the group winner. Our next goal is to reach the final of the European Superfinal, which will be held in Italy in September, and to earn promotion to League A.”

Note: In Group A of League B, the national team of Azerbaijan defeated England (5–4) and Belgium (11–2), but lost to Lithuania (3–4). With 5 points, Azerbaijan finished second in the group and will now compete in the Superfinal, scheduled for September 7–14 in Italy.