Kazakhstan suffered a humiliating reverse against Armenia at home on June 2 and they will hope to put those bad memories to rest when they play Azerbaijan in the Euro 2008 qualifiers on June 6.  Kazakhstan coach Arno Pijpers has not changed the squad from the one which beat Serbia 2-1 in March. This was Kazakhstan's first win since being admitted to UEFA.

However Pijpers has called up 26-year-old FC Ordabasy Shymkent defender Sergey Kozulin. The latter has featured in some friendlies for Kazakhstan although he still has to make his competitive debut. The last game was horrible for the Kazakhstan team as they slipped to a 2-1 defeat to bottom team Armenia. Ruslan Baltiyev salvaged some pride for the hosts with a late consolation goal, but their coach will be hoping for a better showing against the Azerbaijan team.

Meanwhile Azerbaijan coach Shakhin Diniyev is also facing problems following the 1-3 home defeat to Poland yesterday. Azerbaijan took the lead thanks to a splendid strike by Branimir Subašić in the sixth minute, but the Poland team hit back with three goals to leave Azerbaijan at the bottom of Group A.

None of Azerbaijan's Brazil-born players will feature in the Kazakhstan game as Ernani Pereira and Leandro Gomes are injured and the coach has elected to leave Marcus Ferreira and Andre Ladaga out of his squad. "I'm very happy the majority of my players really want to play for their country," he said. He has also recalled Emin Guliyev and Samir Aliyev to his squad although he has never worked with them before.