Norway v Azerbaijan background

With Croatia hosting Italy, Per-Mathias Høgmo's Norway have a great chance to gain ground on the top two in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group H as Azerbaijan come to Oslo.

Previous meetings
• Håvard Nordtveit scored the only goal as Norway overcame Azerbaijan 1-0 in Baku in November. That result means Norway have won all three of their games against Azerbaijan without conceding.

• Their only previous meetings came in 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifying. Egil Olsen's Norway beat Kazbek Tuaev's Azerbaijan 5-0 in Oslo on 2 June 1996, Ståle Solbakken (7, 47) and Ole Gunnar Solskjær (36, 89) scoring twice each and Frank Strandli (59) once. Those were Solbakken's first international goals, and Solskjær and Strandli's first competitive international strikes.

• Tore André Flo (42) notched the only goal in the return fixture on 6 September 1997, with Vagif Sadygov having taken charge of Azerbaijan.

Form guide
• Norway's Group H record so far is W3 D0 L2. They have won only one of their last four competitive home games (W1 D1 L2) – a 2-1 success against Bulgaria in October 2014.

• Azerbaijan had lost all four of their Group H matches before they saw off Malta 2-0 in their most recent outing – their first game under new coach Robert Prosinečki.

• Azerbaijan are without a win in 12 competitive away fixtures (D3 L9) since a 2-0 success in Liechtenstein in an October 2009 World Cup qualifier.

Trivia and links
• In terms of meetings in UEFA youth and age-group tournaments, there is little to separate the sides: Azerbaijan's record in six encounters is W2 D1 L3.

• The four UEFA competition meetings between the nations' clubs have produced two Azerbaijani wins and one Norwegian victory. Most recently, Tromsø IL eliminated İnter Bakı PİK in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, despite losing the second leg 1-0 in Baku.

• Azerbaijan coach Prosinečki scored the only goal as Yugoslavia beat Norway 1-0 in Oslo in a UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier in June 1989.