Kazakhstan – Slovenia

The home side will score at least one point against the Balkan team

Kazakhstan and Slovenia are drawn in the same group as Denmark, Finland, Northern Ireland and San Marino. It is a safe bet that the Danes will qualify for the next stage. Each of the remaining teams with ambition may be looking at their position with hope. In the Kazakh capital, bookmakers expect a winning bid to overcome qualification from the visiting team, with a three-point lead in the table at 2.00. The transfermarkt website put the Slovenian outfit's worth of players at €112 million. More than half of that amount is the price of goalkeeper Jan Oblak and young forward Benjamin Šeško. At the same time, Kazakhstan's starting line-up is worth €18.6m. The only high-value player in the squad, Bakhtiyor Zainutdinov (5.0m euros), has been sitting on the bench of local CSKA in Moscow for the past two months. The Kazakhstani team, despite its lack of star players, is performing well under the new coach. Appointed in May last year, Magomed Adiyev was able to assemble all the football resources of the country and qualitatively conduct the League of Nations. In four games against Slovakia (twice), Belarus and Azerbaijan in the summer, the Kazakhstani team scored ten points out of twelve possible. In the autumn, Adiyev's team needed only to see the tournament to its logical conclusion: first place in their group and promotion to League B. Slovenia have qualified for the 2021 World Cup, finishing fourth behind Croatia, Russia and Slovakia. Last year, the Slovenians achieved the minimum target in the Nations League, where they kept their place in League B. After six games in the group, the national team scored six points, winning only once. Slovenia's side were only edged out by Sweden, who are relegated to Group C. Slovenia will come to Kazakhstan as a favourite. However, it should be taken into account that the Balkan team has not yet played in Kazakhstan. Adiev's talented side will take advantage of the comfortable home conditions to score at least one point.