Estonia vs Azerbaijan prediction: EUROPE: Euro – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-10-12 16:00.
With both Estonia and Azerbaijan locked on one point in Euro qualification Group F, this game probably represents both nations’ best chance of posting a win in this qualifying cycle. With home advantage, Estonia would like to think they have the edge in that quest, but as they come into this clash on the back of three successive defeats by a whopping 13-0 aggregate scoreline, confidence must be nearing an all-time low.
That dismal run includes home defeats to Belgium (3-0) and Sweden (5-0), part of a seven match losing run in home Euro qualifiers. FIFA’s #115 ranked nation haven’t gone through a Euro qualification cycle winless since their failed bid to reach Euro 1996, but with just one win from their last six international meetings with Azerbaijan (D4, L1), they risk taking another unwanted step on that road here.
That’s an eerily similar feat to Azerbaijan, who have also ironically won at least once in every Euro qualification cycle since their attempts to reach the 1996 edition! You’d have to go back to 2015 and a 2-0 win over Malta for Azerbaijan’s last victory in Euro qualifying (D5, L12 since), but there’s no time like the present to end that run, with Gianni De Biasi’s side coming into this clash off the back of a 2-1 win against Jordan in their last international.
There is one small stumbling block in following up that result though, and that’s in the fact that Azerbaijan have never in history won an away Euro qualifier! In that time, Azerbaijan are responsible for the fourth-heaviest defeat ever suffered in Euro qualification, going down 10-0 against France in 1995, although a repeat scoreline is highly improbable seeing Estonia haven’t even scored ten goals across their last 25 Euro qualifiers!
Players to watch: With Rauno Sappinen absent from the Estonia squad through injury, Konstantin Vassiljev is the only other player in the squad to have ever scored a Euro qualification goal. Azerbaijan’s Anton Krivotsyuk netted in the reverse fixture, which still stands as his only ever international goal.
Hot stat: Four of Estonia’s five qualifiers in this cycle have seen a goal scored before the 30th minute.