Natalia Hanikoglu: I love Azerbaijan very much.

The new captain of Azerrail Baku,very nice person and real professional Russian native Turkish player Natalia Hanikoglu about her choice,first round of the GM Challenge Cup and her love to Azerbaijan.
"We defeated opponents with nice game in two matches. We have a very strong team and we are pretentious to win the following matches in this way too. We passed just the first round of the tournament. We will face teams much stronger ahead,so we will do our best to win and to advance as much as possible.
I love Azerbaijan very much. It has also played its big role for my choosing Azerrail Baku. There is always grandiose fan support,it was the same this time too. I love our supporter very much too and call them to be with us till the end,because we are going to win Challenge Cup,Azerbaijani Super league and Cup."

Valeriya Korotenko: We can play much better.

Libero of the Azerbaijani National team and Azerrail Baku,Valeriya Korotenko talked quite pretentious about next season.
"We have passed the first round successfully,but our real purpose is playing final and winning the main trophy. It was not our real power,we can play much better. That`s why we will do our best to play our strongest game in every match."

Riikka Lehtonen: Our aim is - to win "Challenge Cup".

The captain of Igtisadchi Baku, Finnish outside-hitter, Riikka Lehtonen shared her impressions about the matches of the "Challenge Cup" against Bosnian Kula.
"We did not let the opponents to play own game and won these two matches easily as a result. I hope we will put victories in a row and will make glad our fans. We are very pretentious in this tournament. We have quite strong team and we are mighty to reach our purpose."

Tayyiba Haneef-Park: " Everyone says just good things about Azerbaijan."

American star of Igtisadchi Baku, Tayyiba Haneef-Park gave an interview to "Apa-sport",talked about her choice,Azerbaijan and the team.

" I have heard much about Azerbaijan from the American girls played in Azerbaijan. Everyone said just the best words about the country and its folk. And seeing everything with own eyes, I am sure that I did the best choice. I think it will be very nice season for Igtisadchi.
I signed a month ago and joined the team just a little time before. I do not have much information about the Azeri Super league,but I can say that the teams are quite strong and it will be very hard season.
We have just one aim-to win!!! We will do our best to take this aim and make our fans happy.
We won these official matches easily,but i think we could play much better.But I think it will be better in time. We will show our real game and will fight for the best awards."

Igtisadchi and Azerrail advance to the second round of the GM Challenge Cup

Igtisadchi and Azerrail finished the first round GM Challenge Cup games with effortless wins over Kula Gradacac and Paola Hibs, respectively, and advanced to the second round of the tournament.

In the return leg, Igtisadchi defeated Bosnian Kula 3:0 (25:19, 25:15, 25:12) while Azerrail outclassed Maltese Paola with a similar scoreline, 3:0 (25:9, 25:14, 25:12).

Meanwhile, in men's tournament, Azerneft almost caused a major upset. Following the 0:3 loss a day before, Azerbaijan champions rallied to the 3:0 victory (25:21, 27:25, 25:22) in the return leg, taking the game to the "golden set". However, hosts may have run out of steam as Partizan snatched the decisive set 15:10 thus eliminating Azerneft from the competition.

In the second round of the Challenege Cup, Igtisadchi will face off with Sparkasse Klagenfurt of Austria, while Azerrail will meet with A.O. Markopoulo Revoil of Greece.

Mikhail Omelchenko: "Baku" will be one of the best next season.

A new head coach of "Baku" volleyball club,Mikhail Omelchenko talked about the level of Azeri Super league,about plans of the team for next years and friendship between him and Faig Garayev.
"I know Faig Garayev from the USSR team,when Garayev led the Youth team and I was a coach of the Senior Women`s team. When Faig Garayev told me to come and work in Azerbaijan,I was very happy and received this offer with a great pleasure. I did not do that because of financial issues,to tell the truth we have not even talked about my contract yet. I want to help for improvement of the Azerbaijani volleyball.
The level of the Azeri Super league is quite high,all the teams transfer only top class players,what shows that Azerbaijani league will be one of the best in the World.
We started complication of the team very late,so we can not build such a strong team as Rabita or the others. Because all the strongest players have contract,and some of the leagues have already started. We try to make a team which will show nice and interesting game against the leaders,but we will do our best to have one of the strongest team not only in Azerbaijan,but also in the World,next season."

Cuban Noris Leydis Acea Cabrera joins Azerrail Baku.

Cuban diagonal player,captain of Youth National team and a member of Senior`s team Noris Leydis Acea Cabrera is the last transfer of Azerrail Baku.
24 years old Noris Leydis Acea Cabrera played for the cuban Senior`s National team in different international tournaments like" Boris Yeltsin`s Cup", Montreux Volley Masters and etc.
She will help Azerrail not earlier than the second round of the European "Challenge Cup".

Peruvian legend-Elena Keldibekova in Lokomotiv Baku.

Last finalist of Azerbaijani Superleague,Lokomotiv Baku realized a transfer of a very experienced setter, Peruvian National team member-Elena Keldibekova.
Peruvian Legend- this is how Kazakhstan born setter is called by volleyball fans. Elena Keldibekova (177 cm,1974)has been playing for Peru National Team for 20 years and she is one of the famous sportsmen in this country.
Note: Before Keldibekova,Lokomotiv Baku was interested to ink Bulgarian setter Evelina Tsvetanova,but the sides did not come to an agreement.