Familiar Benfica face endured hellish days in Azerbaijan | OneFootball

Fernando Santos was dismissed from his position as head coach of the Azerbaijan national team after a heavy defeat against Iceland, in a match counting towards qualification for the 2026 World Cup. After the setback, Fernando Santos was bombarded with several questions from the Azerbaijani press, many of which were not at all friendly.

"You have already earned enough money in your career. Do you really want to be paid compensation to leave? Don’t you have any self-respect?" This was one of the questions the former Benfica coach had to answer after the defeat, always choosing a professional tone: "As I have said, I have a contract and I honor my contracts. I do my best, I give everything I know, I give my all and work hard to try to improve, and that’s what I will do. That’s what I have always done in my career," Fernando Santos replied.

Despite the tone of this question, there was still room for one as direct or even more so than the previous, in which Fernando Santos was asked if there were "direct flights from Iceland to Portugal", to which the former Portugal coach replied "no".

Despite the defeat to Iceland, Fernando Santos refused to step down, but ended up being dismissed anyway: "Why should I resign? Name me a coach who resigns. If you see that I am doing something wrong, talk to me and solve the problem."

It should be recalled that the secretary-general of the Azerbaijan Federation, Jahangir Farajullayev, had already publicly criticized his team’s performances under Fernando Santos: "We respect the opponent, but if we play like this and stay on the defensive from the very first minutes, then that will be our problem. The tactical system was chosen incorrectly. The coach did not do his homework. The coach’s attitude towards football and the Azerbaijani people is incorrect".

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.