2026 World Cup Qualifiers: Ukraine national team to play second qualifying match against Azerbaijan
Kyiv • UNN
The Ukrainian national team will play its second 2026 World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan on September 9 at 7:00 PM in Baku. Bookmakers predict a victory for Ukraine.
Tomorrow, September 9, the Ukrainian national football team will play its second match in the qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup. Our national team will meet the Azerbaijani national team in Baku. UNN tells who is the favorite of the match and where to watch the game.
Details
The second match in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers for our national team will take place in the capital of Azerbaijan - Baku, at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium. The starting whistle will sound at 7:00 PM Kyiv time.
Ukraine and Azerbaijan have already played their matches in Group D. Unfortunately, Ukraine lost to the French - 2:0, and Azerbaijan was crushingly defeated by Iceland - 5:0.
Ukraine lost to France in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers06.09.25, 00:00 • 4762 views
As previously reported by UNN, Ukraine lost several key players in the qualifiers, including Andriy Lunin, Oleksandr Tymchyk, Vitaliy Mykolenko, and Roman Yaremchuk, and Viktor Tsygankov, who suffered an injury in a match for "Girona" and left the team, also left the national team's location.
At the same time, the Azerbaijani national team was left without a head coach before the match against Ukraine. On Monday, it became known that Fernando Santos left the team by mutual agreement. Aykhan Abbasov will lead the Azerbaijani national team in the match against Ukraine.
Aykhan Abbasov - new coach of the Azerbaijani national team
Before the match
As mentioned above, Santos left the team, so at the traditional pre-match press conference, the Azerbaijani national team was represented by one of its coaches, Rashad Eyubov.
We trained according to the plan. Our goal was to psychologically prepare the team in a short period of time. Football is a team game, and we must work as a team. I believe that we have the strength and quality to achieve a positive result.
The head coach of the Ukrainian national team, Serhiy Rebrov, stated that Santos' dismissal affected the preparation for the match.
Of course, this affects the preparation, we will make the necessary adjustments. We presented the opponent's team to the players, showed how the Azerbaijanis play in attack and defense. But what we show tomorrow is important. I believe the national team will be ready for any game model performed by Azerbaijan. I think tomorrow will be a tough game. I hope our players will not listen to this press conference. Because when teams change coaches, it can be perceived differently. I do not consider the Azerbaijani national team weak. I watched the matches, including the first half with Iceland - I do not think the Azerbaijani national team played very weakly. They acted organized, but, unfortunately, did not create chances. Tomorrow will be a difficult game. We will do everything to make the players understand this and try to achieve a result from the first minute.
Match referees
On the field of the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium and beyond, the events will be handled by referees from Greece led by Vassilis Fotias. He will be assisted on the lines by Andreas Meintanas and Michail Papadakis. Anastasios Papapetrou will serve as the fourth official, and Angelos Evangelou and Ioannis Papadopoulos will be responsible for the VAR system.
Vassilis Fotias - chief referee of the match
Where to watch
Fans will be able to watch the Azerbaijan – Ukraine match live on the Megogo OTT platform and for free on the Megogo Sport TV channel on T2 and cable networks.
Bookmakers' predictions
Bookmakers give a confident victory to the Ukrainian national team, on whose victory you can bet with odds of 1.5. For Azerbaijan's victory - 6.5, and for a draw - 4.2.
In their history, the teams met only twice in distant 2006. The first match ended in a goalless draw, and in the second match, the Azerbaijani national team was crushed - 6:0.
Artificial intelligence believes that Ukraine will win this match with a score of 2:0, as Azerbaijan is in a rather weak form: they have not won official matches for several games in a row, have problems with attack, and often concede more than one goal.