Austria vs Azerbaijan – Betting Preview
Austria will be aiming to beat Azerbaijan at home on Friday to start their European Championship qualifying campaign.
But, the visitors, who are travelling to Linz, could be dangerous opponents given that they have won all five of their previous games.
Austria Preview
Austria gained a great deal of confidence by defeating Andorra and Italy in friendly matches in November after being demoted from League A in the Nations League the previous year.
Ralf Rangnick, a former manager of Manchester United, took over as head coach of Das Team in April of last year. In his first game in charge, Das Team easily defeated Croatia 3-0 away from home in the first round of Nations League matches.
Yet after dropping to League B with just one point from their final five games, Rangnick was under even more pressure to perform well in future competitive games.
Anything less than a return of maximum points would represent a minor catastrophe for Austria, who will be aiming to finish ahead of Belgium and/or Sweden to claim an automatic qualification spot for Euro 2024 in Rangnick’s home country.
Azerbaijan Preview
Though Gianni De Biasi’s team is expected to be full of confidence after putting together an amazing winning streak of five games, Azerbaijan will undoubtedly not be taken lightly at Raiffeisen Arena on Friday night.
Prior to their home match against Belarus in June of last year, the Italian, who took over as Milli Komanda manager in July 2020, had only won two of his previous 25 matches. Nevertheless, four victories have since followed.
Azerbaijan narrowly missed out on promotion from League C in the Nations League, as Kazakhstan edged them out by three points. However, recent road victories over Slovakia, Moldova, and North Macedonia have dispelled the notion that Di Biasi’s team faces an easy opponent when they are away from their Baku home stadium.
Having failed to win a single match in either of their most recent competitive tournament qualification campaigns, Di Biasi will be desperate to improve on that record as a minimum target, with securing a top three finish set to be a difficult task given the relative strength of three of their opponents in Group F.
1×2 Betting Odds
Let’s begin analysing the 1×2 market
Austria should be confident in holding Azerbaijan at arm’s length on Friday at home after keeping clean sheets in each of their triumphs in November friendlies.
The home side to win this stands @ 1.23.
Although the visitors have won all five of their games, none of those opponents were nearly as skilled as Austria, thus Rangnick’s team ought likely be able to open their qualification campaign with a convincing victory!
Azerbaijan are not given much of a chance with odds standing @ 15.00.
The market odds of a stalemate stands @ 6.50.
Total goals over/under
Let’s check the over/under scenario
The odds that the total number of goals scored will be over 2.5, stands @ 1.73.
While the odds that the total number of goals will be under 2.5, stands @ 2.19.
Judging by the market odds, it is expected that the home side will win this one with utter ease.
