Kazakhstan vs Denmark

Astana Arena is the venue as Kazakhstan and Denmark go head-to-head in a lopsided Euro 2024 qualifying Group H contest.

Kazakhstan’s bid to qualify for the first European Championship finals as an independent nation was off to a sluggish start. Magomed Adiyev’s men lost 2-1 at home to Slovenia in their opening qualifying match despite leading at halftime, making it four defeats in a row. Moreover, they’re now winless in their last ten qualifying games for major international tournaments (D3, L7). Ending that underwhelming run looks unlikely from Kazakhstan’s point of view, given that they’ve lost all four previous meetings with Denmark by an aggregate score of 12-3, all of which came in World Cup qualifying. Adiyev’s next concern is a fragile backline that has failed to keep a clean sheet in seven consecutive outings (W2, D1, L4), conceding at least twice in the last four.

In the meantime, Rasmus Hojlund’s hat-trick in his first-ever start for Denmark inspired ‘Danish Dynamite’ to a 3-1 home win over Finland in their curtain-raising qualifier, helping them put a nightmarish 2022 World Cup campaign behind them. Hojlund’s heroics guided Kasper Hjulmand’s men to a fifth win in their last seven outings in UEFA competitions (L2), which seems like a confidence-boosting run. The visitors need all encouragement they can get following a woeful spell of form on foreign soil, having suffered three defeats on their last five travels. But it’s worth noting that each loss in that run came against sides ranked better than Kazakhstan in the FIFA rankings.