Azerbaijan vs Portugal

Wednesday’s World Cup qualifying action gets underway at the Baku Olympic Stadium as out-of-sorts Azerbaijan take on high-flying Portugal.

Azerbaijan wasted a 1-0 half-time lead away to the Republic of Ireland, managing just a 1-1 draw to register the first point in this World Cup qualifying campaign (D1, L3). Despite an underwhelming return, Gianni De Biasi’s men have kept each of their Group A fixtures competitive as all four have seen the sides separated at full-time by under 1.5 goals. However, Azerbaijan’s hopes of reaching their first World Cup finals appearance as a sovereign nation could mathematically end if they fail to land the three points here. Although they have failed to capture a victory in just one of their previous six World Cup qualifying campaigns, that prospect looks likely to take place here as they’ve never defeated a nation ranked inside FIFA’s top ten in their history.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo’s heroic late brace helped Portugal turn a 1-0 half-time deficit into a 2-1 away triumph to keep pace with group-toppers Serbia. Despite returning three wins and a draw from their first four Group A matches, ‘A Selecao’ sit below Serbia on a goal difference. Therefore, they will likely pursue a landslide victory against a nation they have beaten by an aggregate score of 11-0 across their last five competitive international H2Hs. Additionally, the Euro 2016 champions have conceded just once across their previous seven H2Hs (W6, D1), while netting an average of 2.71 goals per game at the other end of the pitch. Hot favorites to maintain their impressive H2H streak against Azerbaijan, Fernando Santos’ side head into proceedings on the back of a 3-1 win over World Cup hosts Qatar.