Wales vs Azerbaijan 07/09/19

7 September 2019

Wales take on Azerbaijan at the Cardiff City Stadium for their UEFA European Championship qualification (ECQ) battle; in what is a must-win clash for the home nation if they look to interfere in the race for Group E top-two finish.

After missing out on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the hosts are likely to skip another major international event after losing two of their opening three ECQ games (W1, L2). All three of Wales’ results in the qualifying campaign have been settled by a narrow one-goal margin with two of those matches ending with the same 1-0 scoreline. Taking into account their previous four World Cup qualifiers and also four of their games in the UEFA Nations League, none of Wales last 11 competitive matches have ended in a stalemate (W6, L5). Four of their wins in that period have ended with the same 1-0 scoreline while four of their loses in the same span saw them go down by a minimal one-goal margin.

Meanwhile, the visitors seem destined to finish rock bottom in Group E after losing three of their opening ECQ matches. Notably, all three of those games have seen Azerbaijan concede two or more goals and score precisely one. Two of three total goals they’ve scored in the qualifiers have come in the second half, but their defensive frailties have caused Nikola Jurcevic all sorts of problems. Milli have failed to keep a clean sheet in all six halves of the ECQ football played so far, conceding a goal beyond the 70th minute in each of those three games. What’s more, Azerbaijan have suffered three defeats in as many competitive visits to Wales, failing to score a single goal across those clashes.