Ukraine take on the visitors Azerbaijan in a World Cup 2026 qualification match. The match will be played on Monday, October 13th at Stadion Cracovii im. Jozefa Pilsudskiego (Kraków).
Ukraine seem to have plenty of players performing in top Western European leagues these days. They went to the last Euro hailed as “the best generation in history” — only to be thrashed by Romania in their opening game. On the other hand, they did manage to collect four points at that tournament for the first time, though an unfortunate combination of results still left them bottom of their group. In the Nations League, they started poorly but climbed to second place by the end of 2024. Moreover, they beat Belgium in the first playoff match in March. But memories of that famous playoff against France a decade ago came back — this time too, they lost the return leg 0-3! Their September qualifiers were also disappointing: a one-sided defeat to France, and then a 1-1 draw in Baku, where they took the lead but conceded after a controversial penalty. Most recently, they played a wild but successful game in Iceland — after leading 1-0 and 3-1, they allowed the hosts to equalize, only to strike twice more in the closing minutes. The finishing was clinical, especially with several goals from long range. Malinovskyi scored a brace, while Kalyuzhnyi and Ocheretko netted their first international goals. However, they lost their key playmaker Sudakov to injury, and now all eyes are on Yarmolyuk’s recovery, as he missed the game in Reykjavik. Ukraine’s attacking depth looks promising, but their defensive instability remains a major concern ahead of the next matches.
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Azerbaijan are rightly seen as the group underdogs. The “Land of Fire” can take pride in Qarabag, who not only returned to the Champions League group stage but also won both of their opening matches. However, that’s club football, powered by foreign talent. At national team level, Azerbaijan can’t rely on naturalized stars, and bringing in famous foreign coaches has not delivered results. Fernando Santos’ spell was a disaster — in last year’s Nations League, they earned just one draw in six games, against Estonia. Despite that and further failures in friendlies, he didn’t resign even after a 0-5 defeat to Iceland in the opening qualifier. That humiliation finally led to his dismissal, which surprisingly gave the team new energy: they managed to hold Ukraine to a draw at home. This month, they almost held off France until halftime, but Mbappé broke the deadlock and the favorites added two more after the break. The team shows better discipline and defensive structure under their interim coach, yet their attacking creativity remains extremely limited. Azerbaijan will likely focus on damage control rather than chasing points in this away fixture.
In three meetings between the sides, there have now been two draws and just one victory for the “Yellow-Blues.” Ukraine are unlikely to stumble twice in a row against this opponent. Riding the momentum from Reykjavik, they should secure a confident win with a handicap of “-1.5 goals.”
Prediction for the match: Ukraine to win with -1.5 handicap.
