Aiming to commence their 2024 competitive itineraries on a positive footing, Azerbaijan and Sweden will meet for a UEFA Nations League C clash in Baku on Thursday evening.
Milli Komanda come into this matchup following a hard-fought friendly success in June, when the Blue and Yellow failed to earn an uplifting result.
Match preview
© Imago
After failing to qualifying for this summer's European Championships in Germany, Azerbaijan enjoyed four friendly clashes spread across the March and June international windows so far in 2024, only losing one of that particular quartet of contests, being defeated in Albania 3-1 on June 7.
Milli Komanda's most recent fixture arrived in the form of a friendly meeting with Kazakhstan on June 11, when goals from Mahir Emreli, Emin Makhmudov and Tural Bayramov secured a positive result for their nation at Haladas Stadion in Hungary.
Azerbaijan suffered one of their heaviest defeats in recent times during their latest competitive match in November 2023, when four goals from Napoli striker Romelu Lukaku fired Belgium to a five-goal victory in Euro 2024 qualifying.
Finishing second in League C during the 2022-23 edition of the UEFA Nations League, Milli Komanda find themselves back in the third tier of the competition this time around, aiming to finish inside the top two of their section to have a chance of achieving promotion to League B.
Heading into Thursday night's Nations League opener, Sweden will be looking for a vast improvement on their most recent trip to Baku back in November 2023, when a three-goal defeat in Euro qualifying dealt the Scandinavian country's hopes of reaching Germany a major blow.
Following an eight-game qualification campaign, the Blue and White finished in third position in their section with 10 points, nine points behind second-placed Austria, who would go on to be a dark horse at the European Championships under the stewardship of Ralf Rangnick.
Boasting some of the finest names in League C of this year's Nations League, Sweden will be heavy favourites to top a section containing Thursday's hosts Azerbaijan, Slovakia and Estonia, with the latter most recently playing San Marino and Malta in the last edition of this competition.
Following his failure to take Blackburn Rovers back to the Premier League in England from the Championship, Jon Dahl Tomasson is now tasked with guiding the Blue and Yellow to Nations League glory and World Cup qualification next year.
Team News
Currently on the books of Qarabag, Musa Gurbanly will be looking to cement a place in Azerbaijan's starting XI with positive performances over the next week.
After a victory over Kazakhstan during their most recent match, Milli Komanda should stick with a centre-back pairing of Badavi Huseynov and Anton Krivotsyuk.
Despite being called up to the original squad, Newcastle United's Emil Krafth has been forced to withdraw from selection for Sweden due to injury.
The Blue and Yellow still have fellow Magpie Alexander Isak to pick, with the striker fresh from scoring the winner versus Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
Azerbaijan possible starting lineup:
Mammadaliyev; Seydiyev, Huseynov, Krivotsyuk, Jafarguliyev; Jamalov, Makhmudov, Isayev; Sheydaev, Bayramov, Emreli
Sweden possible starting lineup:
Johansson; Holm, Starfelt, Hien, Cajuste; Kulusevski, Saletros, Forsberg; Eliasson, Isak, Elanga
We say: Azerbaijan 1-2 Sweden
After beating Thursday's visitors 3-0 recently, Azerbaijan will be confident of repeating the trick in the Nations League this time around.
That being said, the Blue and Yellow are a different beast now and should have enough quality in attacking areas to secure an opening-round victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
