Slovakia VS Azerbaijan

Slovakia and Azerbaijan lock horn in this UEFA Nations League League C round 5 clash at City Arena Trnava early Friday morning Beijing time. Neither time have started the campaign too well - in fact I would have expected a bit more from Slovakia – especially points-wise. Kazakhstan currently top the standings with 13 points to their account and Slovakia are in the 2nd place with six points and a goal difference of 3:3. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, have grabbed four points. By pure class Slovakia are clearly the best team in this group and have and edge over the visitors in all areas of the game. The biggest difference is in offense – more specifically in strikers’ and midfielders’ individual skill level and creativity. We must also remember that whilst FIFA ranking does not always reflect the level of a national team on the pitch is still a good indicator of a team’s pure class. Slovakia are in the 46th place in this ranking – the visitors currently occupy the 114th place. Slovakia also played in the EURO 2020 and did do pretty well overall..

We must not be fooled by the latest matches are the standings here. Slovakia have been extremely unlucky in the two losses they have suffered against Kazakhstan both at home and in Astana. Indeed, in their most recent Kazakhstan beat them 2-1 at home despite Slovakia having close to 70% ball possession as well as recording much more shots on target, goal attempts, passes, completed passes, attacks and especially dangerous attacks – 17- 62. In Slovakia they controlled the match even more clearly but did lack some offensive structure and creativity though but weirdly lost 0-1. Kazakhstan also played above their normal level and defended in a very solid way. I suspect these losses affect the odds too much here! In Azerbaijan in round 3 Slovakia dominated the game with 61% ball possession and created 16 scoring attempts and recorded six shots on target. The poor hosts had just one! Slovakia also created much more in expected goals and could easily have won by a bigger margin than 1-0. Today’s hosts were also clearly the better team in Belarus despite only winning 1-0. In their most recent match Azerbaijan did beat Belarus 2-0 as favorites in the betting market but the match was pretty balanced. Before this they played 13 matches without a win losing 10/13 games! Slovakia do not have the best fans on the planet, but the atmosphere is still going to be good at the stadium and the hosts are big favorites today!