Azerbaijan – France. Forecast and announcement for the World Cup qualification match

On November 16, a selection match for the World Cup in Europe will be held at the Tofik Bakhramov Stadium, in which the Azerbaijan national team will meet the French national team. The match will start at 19:00 Kyiv time.

Azerbaijan

The team represents a fairly rich country where football is revered. And it is successful, and right now: Qarabag is making noise in the Champions League, beating Benfica (and not only) and drawing with Chelsea, the current winner of the Conference League and the Club World Cup. But it is in the format where legionnaires play the leading roles (although a local specialist, Gurbanov, trains!). In the national team, everything is different: football players are naturalized, of course, but mostly they are forced to bet on the modest local potential. Foreign coaches are willing to do so. Only Fernando Santos was ashamed even against the background of his predecessors.

The experienced coach left only after 0:5 with Iceland. Without him, even at the expense of an indisputable penalty, they drew with Ukraine. But in October there were defeats again. Now the window started against the main offender, the Icelanders. And they made the final 2:0 in their favor in the first half.

France

The national team spends the last cycle under Deschamps. A former captain himself at this level, Didier led his wards to three finals and won one of them, at the 2018 World Cup. True, they stopped earlier at last year’s Euro, and in June there was third place in the League of Nations.

A team of this level, with mega-stars in the bracket (not to mention the foundation!), should have passed the selection without problems. But there was still a delay – if they still beat Iceland at home, then in Reykjavik in October there was only a draw. However, in other matches, the favorite calmly took victories. Taking Ukraine, they could not break through its defenses for almost an hour, with an indisputable advantage. But in the end they made a crushing 4:0.

Statistics of personal meetings

The French won all three previous matches without conceding.

Forecast

Bookmakers do not expect a real fight from the guests – they win even in the reserve class. We bet on an away victory with a handicap of -2.5 goals (coefficient – 1.9).