Azerbaijan take on the visitors Ukraine in a World Cup 2026 qualification match. The match will be played on Tuesday, September 9th at Tofiq Bahramov Stadium (Baku).
Azerbaijan achieve footballing success, but only at club level. “Qarabag” will once again play among Europe’s elite, proving their quality by reaching the main round of the Champions League. But all of this is thanks to foreign players, and naturalizing them for the national team on a large scale is simply impossible. As a result, the federation limits itself to hiring famous European coaches to manage the team. Yet they achieve nothing of note. Fernando Santos is failing completely: in the Nations League they picked up only a single point against Estonia, while losing the return leg to them as well as both matches against Sweden and Slovakia. Nothing improved in 2025 either — although most of their games were friendlies, they managed only a 0-0 draw with Latvia, while losing to Hungary, Belarus, and even Haiti. They began qualification with a crushing 0-5 defeat in Iceland. Azerbaijan are now winless in their last seven competitive fixtures, highlighting the lack of progress under Santos. Their defensive record is especially worrying, with 14 goals conceded across their previous four matches.
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Ukraine under Serhiy Rebrov continue to leave a mixed impression. They fought bravely against England and Italy, but still finished third in the last qualification campaign. They conceded first in both playoff matches, but came back to earn 2-1 victories over Bosnia and Iceland. For the first time, they collected four points in the Euro group stage, but instead of progressing, they finished bottom of their group. They started poorly in the Nations League, spending much of the campaign in relegation danger, but climbed to second place in the autumn. Afterwards, they shocked Belgium with a 3-1 win, only to be crushed 0-3 in the return leg. In Canada this summer they lost to the hosts but beat New Zealand, though criticism still followed. With problems among their legionnaires and poor performances by Ukrainian clubs in European qualifiers, expectations are modest. They lost 0-2 to France as expected, but still created chances to equalize in the second half. Ukraine have at least shown resilience in recent matches, and their ability to score late goals makes them a threat even when struggling. Despite inconsistency, their squad quality remains significantly higher than Azerbaijan’s.
Surprisingly, these teams have only met twice, both in 2006 friendlies — a draw in Azerbaijan and a convincing win for the hosts in Ukraine. The “Yellow-Blues” simply have to win here, even with their growing injury problems. We believe in their away victory.
Prediction for the match: Ukraine to win.
