Preview: Ukraine vs Azerbaijan - prediction, team news, lineups

Ukraine will be aiming to make it back-to-back wins in Group D when they continue their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign with a clash against Azerbaijan on Monday night.

The Blue and Yellows are second in Group D, boasting four points from their opening three matches, while their opponents are fourth, picking up one point from their first three games of their qualification campaign.

Match preview

Ukraine opened their Group D campaign with a 2-0 defeat to France, before picking up their first point of the section against September 9, drawing 1-1 with Azerbaijan.

Sergiy Rebrov's side were then involved in a thriller with Iceland on Friday night, running out 5-3 winners in an incredible match, and four points from three matches has left them second in the group, five points behind the leaders France, who have been perfect in their three games.

Ukraine were actually level at 3-3 with Iceland heading into the latter stages of their qualification fixture, before late goals from Ivan Kaliuzhnyi and Oleg Ocheretko secured all the points.

The Blue and Yellows have over ever qualified for the finals of one World Cup, which occurred in 2006, reaching the quarter-finals of the tournament.

Ukraine have only faced Azerbaijan on three previous occasions, boasting a record of one win and two draws, with their victory proving to be a 6-0 thumping in a friendly back in August 2006.

Azerbaijan, meanwhile, will enter the match off the back of a 3-0 defeat to France, with Kylian Mbappe again starring for the Blues, coming up with a goal and an assist in the home success.

The National Team have drawn one and lost two of their three matches in the section to collect just a single point, which has left them bottom of Group D, three points behind second-placed Ukraine.

Azerbaijan suffered a 5-0 defeat to Iceland in their section opener before drawing 1-1 with Ukraine, and as mentioned, they have avoided defeat in two of their three fixtures with the Blue and Yellows.

The National Team are still being managed by Aykhan Abbasov on an interim basis, with the 44-year-old holding the position since the dismissal of Fernando Santos, who failed to win any of his 11 matches in charge, suffering nine defeats in the process.

Ukraine World Cup Qualifying - Europe form:

LDW

Ukraine form (all competitions):

LLWLDW

Azerbaijan World Cup Qualifying - Europe form:

LDL

Azerbaijan form (all competitions):

LDLLDL

Team News

Ukraine could be unchanged from the side that took to the field for the first whistle against Iceland on Friday, with no fresh issues being reported.

Head coach Rebrov again has a big decision to make in the final third of the field, as 11-goal striker Artem Dovbyk is fit and available, but it is expected that Vladyslav Vanat will continue through the middle.

There should also be spots in the side for Paris Saint-Germain's Illia Zabarnyi and Everton's Vitaliy Mykolenko.

As for Azerbaijan, Mahir Emreli is set to lead the line, with the 28-year-old looking to add to the six goals that he has struck for the national side since his debut.

There are not expected to be any surprises in the away side's XI, as there were some positives to take from the France match despite the disappointing nature of the result.

Emin Mahmudov is also set to be a notable starter for the away side in this contest.

Ukraine possible starting lineup:

Trubin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matviienko, Myklolenko; Gutsulyak, Kalliuzhnyi, Shaparenko, Malinovskyi, Sudakov; Vanat

Azerbaijan possible starting lineup:

Mahammadaliyev; Aliyev, Babalov, Mustafazada, Krivotsyuk, Cafarquliyev; Bayramov, Khaybulaev, Mahmudov, Ahmadzada; Emreli

We say: Ukraine 2-1 Azerbaijan

This is a tough match to call; it was tight in the reverse game, with the points being shared in a 1-1 draw, but we are expecting Ukraine to navigate their way to an important win on Monday night.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.