Today in Kiev, the 17th International International Tournament of Valery Lobanovsky started in Kiev.
Youth (U-21) teams of Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan are involved in the tournament. In the first match, our team met with peers from Ukraine and won with a score of 1: 0. The only goal on the 17th minute scored Musa Gurbanly – the son of the Chief Coach of “Karabakh” Gurban Gurbanova.
Tomorrow, the Azerbaijani national team will play with Uzbekistan, and on May 28, Ukrainian and Uzbek footballers will meet.
Meanwhile, this morning a symbolic opening ceremony of the tournament took place. Representatives of the Ukrainian Association of Football and participating team commemorated the famous coach, laying flowers to his monument from the Moscow Dynamo Stadium, which for many years he has been carrying his name.
Azerbaijan was represented by the head coach of our youth national team Milan Stonovich and Technical Director of Affa Jahangir Gasanzade. Inekovich well remembers the peripetics of the first draw of the tournament, during which he defended the colors of the Moscow Lokomotiv, and his club took 4th place: “I am very pleased to return to Kiev. I played in the first tournament of Lobanovsky’s memory, and now, 18 years Later, glad to be here as a coach.
I feel very warm emotions, because I adore Kiev. He is incredibly beautiful in May. I will try to transfer it to my footballers this is a good mood and positive energy.
We are waiting for two games with good rivals. We want to see, at what level are physically and tactically we are compared to Ukraine and Uzbekistan. “