In Tallinn, in the match of the third round of the group stage of the League of Nations, two outsiders of Group 1 of League C meet, who have not scored a single point after two rounds – the Estonia team and the Azerbaijani team.
İdman.biz presents a preview of the Russian website soccer365.ru for the match with the participation of our team.
The author of the article notes the predictability of the Estonians’ loss in the first two matches:
“The Estonian national team predictably started this Nations League with two defeats. In the first round, after a desperate struggle with the heroic saves of Karl Hein, Jürgen Henn’s team still lost 0:1 to Slovakia, and in the second they could not do anything in the match with the Swedish national team – the main favorite of the group. After rising from League D, the hopes of the Estonian national team were high, but in games against much stronger opponents they look rather helpless.”
It is noted that for the matches against Azerbaijan and Sweden, Jurgen Henn was left without the main striker Rauno Sappinen:
“The Flora Tallinn forward was unable to join the national team due to illness. At the same time, Sappinen’s partner in Flora, striker Mark Anders Lepik, will also not be able to help the Estonia national team due to injury. But you can expect to see again on the field, and perhaps even in the starting lineup, the youngest debutant in the history of the Estonian national team – 16-year-old midfielder Patrick Crystal, who is having an excellent season in Paide.
The author draws attention to the unsuccessful performance of the Estonians in attack against teams of a higher level:
“The attack of the Estonian national team is its most problematic place. Over the last eight matches in official tournaments, the Estonian team has managed to score only one goal. In League D, in a group with Malta and San Marino, the Estonian team scored ten goals in four matches, but against stronger opponents the players no longer lacked class, and the team’s performance dropped sharply. In the Baltic Cup and friendly games, the Estonian strikers were quite successful, but in qualifying for the Euro they scored only twice, but one of these goals was scored against the Azerbaijani national team.”
Improved results are expected from the Azerbaijani team under the leadership of Santos:
“Azerbaijan, like Estonia, lost in the first two matches to group favorites Sweden and Slovakia. However, the new team coach Fernando Santos, despite not the best results, believes that he will be able to improve Millie’s game and take it to a new level. These words cannot be called groundless – in many aspects, the Azerbaijani national team under his leadership has really improved, but for the results to come, the Portuguese specialist needs time, and perhaps against Estonia his team will look more complete.”
The changes in our team are described:
“Fernando Santos has already roughly decided on the main roster of his team, and for the matches against Estonia and Slovakia he called up most of the same players as for the previous matches. They only had to refuse the call of goalkeeper Imanov and defender Saidiev, who are now out of shape, as well as two injured players – Qarabag defender Bahlul Mustafazadeh and Sabah defensive midfielder Elvin Jamalov. Plus, Nariman Akhundzadeh moved to the youth team, where the young Qarabag striker will have more opportunity to get playing time.”
Attention is drawn to the difference between Santos and De Biasi: “The players of the Azerbaijani national team play regularly in their clubs – this is one of the requirements of Santos, who, unlike De Biasi, first of all looks at the form of the players. In the last matches before the start of the training camp, all the players performed quite well, but one of the main problems was their performance. Of all 23 players who joined the Milli, only two scored this weekend – Ramil Sheydayev and Elvin Jafarguliyev.”
According to the author, the Azerbaijani team has a better chance of winning:
“The national teams of Estonia and Azerbaijan are two outsiders of Group 1, and in head-to-head meetings they will determine who can maintain their registration in League C. So far, the Azerbaijani team has more chances – under the leadership of Fernando Santos, the team began to look much more confident, and although the first two matches lost, there was a lot of progress in the game.” All of the Millies’ players are in good form, and the only problem line is the attack, which lacks consistent scoring.
However, the attack of the Estonia national team is in an even more deplorable state: at a more serious level, it stopped scoring altogether, and in general, opponents of a level higher than San Marino and Malta turned out to be completely too tough for it.”
Prediction for the match: 0:2
İdman.biz