EURO 2012 Qualification-Match Preview: Germany versus Azerbaijan
Germany is all set to take on Azerbaijan in what will be their second qualification match of the European Championships of 2012. The Bavarian giants are one of the re-emerging forces in International football after their youthful squad finished in the semi-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
On their route to the semi-finals, Germany unexpectedly knocked out favourites such as England and Argentina. Before the 2010 FIFA World Cups started, Germany’s young squad was being touted as “too weak” to compete against the likes of Argentina, who had Messi and Tevez in their ranks.
However, the young Germans proved everyone wrong and in doing also gathered quite a reputation for themselves. In the summers transfer window, two of Germany’s most outstanding players at the FIFA 2010 World Cup, namely Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil earned themselves big money moves to the Spanish giants, Real Madrid.
Germany started their qualification campaign strongly but unconvincingly after they only just laboured to a one nil win over Belgium in their first match of the European Championship’s qualification rounds. In the FIFA 2010 World Cup, Germany earned praise by playing high tempo, attacking football and thus people were expecting them to reproduce the same brand of football in the qualifiers, however, they have their fans down in that respect thus far.
Joachim Low, who was retained as Germany’s manager after their defeat to eventual World Champion’s, Spain, in the semi-finals of the tournament has been credited with entrusting German football’s future to his young stars like Mueller. The Bayern Munich forward was impressive in Germany’s average display against Belgium and was one of the standout players at the FIFA 2010 World Cup as well.
According to some pundits, Germany is already favourites to win the European Championships of 2012 due to their squad’s nature. Experts believe that in two years time players such as Ozil, Mueller, Khedira and Kroos will be much more matured and experienced, thus making them ideal for achieving success at the highest level of international football. However, to get the European Championships of 2012, Germany first have to get past Azerbaijan, who have not been in a good run of form themselves.
In their last five matches, Azerbaijan has only won a single match and that encounter was against Luxembourg, who are hardly top level opposition, themselves. However, it is interesting to note that they have only lost a single match out of their last six matches. Last time Azerbaijan played Germany was in September of 2009, a match where Germany emerged as four nil winners in Hannover. Both these teams were also coupled together in the FIFA 2010 Qualification groups as well.
For Germany, the player to watch out for is Miroslav Klose, who has continued his international career despite rumours of his retirement after ending up as one of the highest scorers in the World Cup in South Africa. Klose was on mark for Germany in their match against Belgium and he scored the winner which gave his national side three points in their qualification opener.
Elvin Mammadov will be looking to get on the score sheet for Azerbaijan as he has already scored seven goals in twenty-two appearances for his national team. The FK Karabakh midfielder is famous for playing in as an offensive player for Azerbaijan and his performance will be crucial to Azerbaijan’s hopes of succeeding in their attempts to qualify for EURO 2012.
The key battle which might decide the fate of this match will be between Mesut Ozil from Germany against Maksim Medvedev from Azerbaijan. Both these midfielders play in conflicting positions. Ozil is fonder of linking his team’s midfield to strikers whereas Maksim is considered an expert at breaking up the oppositions play. If Germany are to be contained in the match in question, then Maksim will have to keep Mesut quiet, otherwise it can result in a horribly embarrassing score line for Azerbaijan.
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