Sports Mole previews Friday’s friendly clash between Armenia and Kazakhstan, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Armenia will be bidding to end a four-game losing run in all competitions when they tackle Kazakhstan in an international friendly on Friday night.
The hosts will enter the contest off the back of a 2-1 defeat to Slovenia on Tuesday, while Kazakhstan lost 2-1 to Luxembourg in their last international fixture at the end of March.
Match preview
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Armenia have never qualified for the finals of a major international tournament, and they will not be present at this summer’s European Championship, having finished fourth in Group D behind Turkey, Croatia and Wales.
Oleksandr Petrakov‘s side are instead looking ahead to the return of competitive action in the UEFA Nations League, with their first fixture taking place against Latvia on September 7.
Armenia were in action on Tuesday evening, suffering a 2-1 defeat to Slovenia, which proved to be their fourth straight loss in all competitions.
Indeed, the national side were beaten 1-0 by Croatia in their final Euro 2024 qualification fixture and have since lost to Kosovo, Czech Republic and Slovenia in friendly encounters.
Armenia are going in search of their first victory since June 2023, when they beat Latvia 2-1, but they are on a eight-game winless run in friendlies, with their last success in a non-competitive fixture coming against Montenegro back in March 2022.
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Kazakhstan, meanwhile, have not been in action since suffering a 2-1 defeat to Luxembourg in a friendly at the end of March.
The Hawks had comfortably their best-ever qualification campaign when attempting to secure a spot at Euro 2024, but they were beaten 5-0 by Greece in their playoff semi-final back in March.
Even though the result and performance was hugely disappointing, the national side can take plenty of encouragement from their showing in the qualification section, picking up 18 points from their 10 matches, which is just four fewer than Denmark managed in the same group.
Stanislav Cherchesov‘s side have won three of their last six international matches, including a 2-0 victory over Turkmenistan in a friendly in March.
Kazakhstan have faced Armenia on seven previous occasions, with the latter winning four of those fixtures, but their last meeting, which was a World Cup qualifier in October 2017, finished 1-1.
Armenia friendly form:
Armenia form (all competitions):
Kazakhstan friendly form:
Kazakhstan form (all competitions):
Team News
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Armenia had Artur Miranyan at the tip of their attack against Slovenia last time out, and the 28-year-old could retain his starting role here, as he continues his search for his first international goal.
Head coach Petrakov set his side out in a 5-4-1 formation against Slovenia, and that is likely to also be the case here, with Varazdat Haroyan set to skipper the team from the back.
Valencia defender Andranik Hakobyan is one of four uncapped players in the Armenian squad, and the 18-year-old will be bidding to secure some minutes in this contest.
As for Kazakhstan, there will be a spot in the XI for Bakhtiyar Zaynutdinov, who has an impressive record of 14 goals in 36 appearances for his country.
Besiktas’ Zaynutdinov is one of two Turkey-based players in the squad, the other being Abat Aymbetov, who represents Adana Demirspor.
Serhiy Malyi is set to win his 68th cap from a defensive position, while there is also set to be a spot in the starting side for Astana’s Islambek Kuat.
Armenia possible starting lineup:
Cancarevic; Hovhannisyan, Harutyunyan, Haroyan, Mkrtchyan, Tiknizyan; Dashyan, Sevikyan, Spertsyan, Serobyan; Miranyan
Kazakhstan possible starting lineup:
Shatsky; Malyi, Marochkin, Alip, Yerlanov; Kuat, Tagybergen, Orazov, Zaynutdinov; Aymbetov, Astanov
We say: Armenia 1-1 Kazakhstan
As mentioned, the two sides played out a 1-1 draw when they last met in October 2017; a lot has changed since then, but both teams will be expecting a tight game on Friday, and we can see the spoils being shared once again.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.