France vs Azerbaijan
Earlier in the week, I wrote about what a footballing mismatch a traditional all-British clash had become.
Well, the same term applies and can be multiplied many times over for this World Cup qualifier in the Parc des Princes on Friday night.
A quick look at Group D emphasizes that very point with France, so far, having two wins from two and six points, while the minnows of Azerbaijan boast a solitary point and a goal difference of minus five.
Yet that only tells half the story and, as they prepare to lock horns, should we be surprised as the nations are ranked second and 124th in the world respectively.
No prizes for guessing who are expected to deliver the World Cup qualifier 2025 highlights in this one then.
Talking Points
There is no doubt France are the clear favourites.
After all, they have reached the past two World Cup Finals, haven’t failed to reach a World Cup since 1994 (when they actually missed two tournaments in a row) and went unbeaten in the last qualifying campaign, topping their group with five wins and three draws from eight matches.
They are certainly operating at different levels to their opponents and, led by the best player on planet football at the last World Cup, are expected to deliver some World Cup qualifying 2025 highlights.
Such is the strength of the squad at Didier Deschamps’ disposal, they remain overwhelming favourites despite being without the suspended Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni and the injured trio of Bradley Barcola, Marcus Thuram and newly crowned world player of the year Ousmane Dembele.
While Deschamps has been in the Les Bleus hot seat since 2012, there is a new man in charge of Azerbaijan and after they recently parted company with a successful leader.
Fernando Santos guided Portugal to Euro 2016 success, defeating Deschamps and France in the final, but has recently been replaced by Aykhan Abbasov.
The Azerbaijan Football Federation confirmed Abbasov will continue as head coach, after serving on an interim basis, for the remainder of this campaign and praised his work with the under 21s and the team’s recent 1-1 draw against Ukraine in qualifying.
Few really expect them to be competitive and their goal difference after just two matches, without playing the best side in the group, tells the story of a team struggling at both ends of the pitch, finding it difficult to create scoring opportunities while conceding goals at an alarming rate.
Over their last five World Cup qualification matches spanning different campaigns, they have failed to register a single victory, managing just one draw alongside four defeats.
The difficulties facing any coach in charge of minnows was highlighted as Santos actually lost nine of his 11 matches in charge.
Azerbaijan remain without a victory since a friendly with Kazakhstan in the middle of June, while their last competitive win was back in November 2023.
Abbasov is not expected to make any surprises when it comes to his starting XI with Renat Dadashov and Mahir Emreli, who have netted 10 times between them for the national side, set to feature in the final third of the field.
It may appear harsh to say this but perhaps even a first-ever goal against the French is the most Azerbaijan can realistically expect for this is as big a mismatch in international football that you will see all year.
History
This will be only the third meeting between the two countries and, as expected, it’s been pretty one-sided thus far.
Qualifiers for Euro 96 paired Les Bleus with Milli and the minnows fared fairly well in the first game on home soil, restricting their opponents to two goals from Jean-Pierre Papin and Patrice Loko.
That was in December 1994 but it was a very different scenario in Auxerre nine months later when the French hit 10 without reply.
The scorers on that occasion were Marcel Desailly, Youri Djorkaeff (two), Vincent Guerin, Reynald Pedros, Frank Leboeuf (two), Christophe Dugarry, Zinedine Zidane and Christophe Cocard.
Betting Tip
At the time of writing they are not online but don’t forget to check out our SBOTOP World Cup qualifier 2025 betting odds before kick-off.
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