Azerbaijan versus Germany – European Championship Qualification: First half review
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Azerbaijan-c2845’s EURO 2012 qualifier against Germany kicked off in fantastic fashion at the Tofig Bakhramov Stadium on 7th of June, 2011 as both the teams looked to compete for a place in the European Championships that
are scheduled to take place in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032 in 2012.
Germany used their usual 4-2-3-1 formation with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Holger-Badstuber-c16281. Lahm carried the German team’s arm
band on the night as Benedikt Howedes and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Toni-Kroos-c35425 lined up in central midfield for the FIFA 2010 World Cup semi-finalists.
In front of Kroos and Benedikt, Mesut Ozil played as Germany’s main creative midfielder and his presence was complimented by the wide pairing of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lukas-Podolski-c22896 and Thomas Mueller. In attack, Mario Gomez played as Germany’s solitary
striker. On the other hand, Azerbaijan went with a traditional 4-4-2 formation. The home side used Kamran Agayev as their first choice goalkeeper and deployed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Defence-c38904.
In midfield, Ruslan Abushev, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vugar-Nadirov-c36473. Berti Vogts’ team started the match as the superior of
the two sides despite the incredible amount of talent on display in the German line up.
In the 7th minute of the encounter, Chertoganov had Neuer beaten by a mile on his far post as the Azerbaijani target-man unleashed a brilliant shot from outside the German penalty area. Luckily for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Germany-c2904, the ball
missed their goal by mere inches as the score line remained at nil all. In the 9th minute, Azerbaijan were on the front foot once again as Nadirov struck the post with his blistering effort. The young striker’s effort was tipped onto the post thanks
to a brilliant finger tip save by Neuer.
In the 18th minute, Germany rose to the occasion and finally got their first shot on target as Toni Kroos struck the post. The Bayern Munich midfielder took responsibility from a free kick opportunity and managed to
curve the ball around the wall but unfortunately for the former World Cup winners, the young midfielder’s effort struck the post and went out of play.
In the 30th minute totally against the run of play, Germany netted their first goal as Mesut Ozil latched onto a loose ball inside the Azerbaijani penalty area. The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Real-c30728 Madrid midfielder calmly finished off the opening
by slotting the ball past Agayev. Shortly afterwards, Holger Badstuber slipped a through ball for Mesut Ozil who in turn played in Mario Gomez. The Bayern Munich striker made no mistake with his tap in as Germany added yet another goal to their lead against
Azerbaijan.
Just before the first half came to an end, Azerbaijan tried to pull a goal back through Chertoganov as Amirquliyev found his compatriot with a marvellous cross field pass. The Azerbaijani forward failed to hit the target with his
finish and the first half came to a close thereafter with the score line at 0-2 in favour of the visiting team.
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