Head coaches talk to the media ahead of 2019 AFC U-20 Futsal Championship Qualifiers

Uzbekistan was placed in Group B of Central Zone group along with Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic.

In Group A, the reigning champions Iran will face Afghanistan and Turkmenistan for the direct access to the 2019 AFC U-20 Futsal Championship, while two runners-up will struggle for the third ticket to the final stage of the tournament.

Head coaches of participating Abdul Razaq Momrak (Afghanistan), Hamid Shandiziy Mukaddam (Iran) and Guvanch Kanaev (Turkmenistan) attended the first phase of the press conference.

Abdul Razaq Momrak (Afghanistan): I would like to say that we are honored to take part in this tournament and I hope each participating teams are ready for this competition. Ahead of this qualification round, we had training sessions in Khujand and we managed to defeat Tajikistan in both matches. However, I cannot compare Tajikistan with our opponent teams, Iran and Turkmenistan, but our goal is still to qualify for AFC U-20 Futsal Championship 2019.

Hamid Shandiziy Mukaddam (Iran): I hope that each participating team visited this qualification round with high objectives and they will probably show a good football. Ahead of this tournament, we participated Youth Olympic Games and managed to form our team with very good players. We have the same aims as our senior team that we should achieve the goals we set before.

Guvanch Kanaev (Turkmenistan): We are happy to participate in this tournament which is the first competition for our futsal team in this age category. And, we will try to do our best to earn a spot for the final round of the competition. Unfortunately, we don't have a special futsal league in this age category, but we chose right players for our team after different training camps.

Bahodir Ahmedov (Uzbekistan): “I’m very grateful that our country is hosting qualification round of AFC U20 Futsal Championship 2019. And, I would like to wish a very good luck to each participating team in the upcoming matches. We chose players for this team in different tournaments in this age category and only few players from Uzbekistan Futsal League clubs. Uzbekistan national futsal league former players, Nodir Eliboev and Rustam Umarov are assisting me to prepare for this competition. I think Uzbekistan and Iran may qualify for the final stage of the competition direct quotas.

Mustafo Afshariy (Tajikistan): I'm glad to lead Tajikistan in this tournament. We hope we will get one of direct quota for the final round of the competition. Certainly, we lost two friendlies against Afghanistan in front of the home crowd. But, we tried to test our strategy and tactics in these matches and it's was enough helpful ahead of the qualifiers.

Nurjan Jetybaev (Kyrgyzstan): I think this competition will be interesting as 6 worthy participating teams will struggle for 3 direct places for the AFC U20 Futsal Championship 2019. At this time, we don't have a special league in this age category, but more players were called from two clubs of Kyrgyzstan Futsal League.