Malta vs Azerbaijan Betting Tips

This is certainly not one of the week’s glamour ties and although Azerbaijan still have a mathematical chance of reaching the play-offs, in reality there is nothing riding on this game but pride and the tussle for world rankings positions.

Malta held Italy for the majority of their game last week but a strike from Graziono Pelle in the 69th minute saw Italy to a 1-0 win. The narrowness of their defeat in Florence shouldn’t have come as a total surprise given Malta frequently give the bigger teams a minor fright and are rarely heavily beaten.

They have only conceded 11 goals in 7 games in this group which also includes Croatia and Norway so they are clearly a well organised side that can hold their own for large chunks of matches against far more decorated opposition.

Despite that, the cold hard facts don’t make for good reading for anyone looking to back Malta to get a result. They’ve taken just 2 points from their last 21 European Championship qualifiers and have lost all their last 9 competitive games at home, scoring just 3 times in the process. Given that Azerbaijan already look like good value to win this game at 11/8.

Azerbaijan may not be a great side either but they won 2-0 when these sides met earlier in the campaign and held group leaders Croatia to a 0-0 draw at the weekend, a result which they will have taken great confidence from.
They are actually unbeaten in 3 competitive games, which for a nation of their standing is some accomplishment, having drawn in Oslo in between the Malta and Italy games.

This game is highly unlikely to be free-scoring given these two have scored just 5 times between them in 14 outings in this group but Azerbaijan possess just that little bit of extra quality and you can back them to nick it 1-0 at 5/1.