The young and talented ‘Dragons’ will face the national under-21 team of Kazakhstan tomorrow at the Asim Ferhatović Hase stadium in Sarajevo at 16:30. The youngsters will try to keep the three points at home and to move a step closer to qualification for the u21 European Championship that will be held in Poland in 2017.
As a result of the draw in February that took place in Nyon in France, BiH was placed in Group 9 alongside England, Norway, Kazakhstan and Switzerland. Since then, only one match has been played in this group. Earlier this year in June, Norway hosted the Dragons at the Marienlyst Stadium in Drammen and were too strong for BiH. The Norwegians won with 2-0 with goals from Mohamed Elyounoussi and Fredrik Aursnes. As a result, Norway is the current leader of Group 9 but as mentioned, only one match has been played so far. A win tomorrow against the youngsters from Kazakhstan would bring BiH back on track on their road to qualification.
The current top goal scorer on Bosnian side is striker Armin Hodzic who plays in Croatia for Dinamo Zagreb. The captain of the u21 squad has scored three goals in his last four appearances. Hodzic has shown real flashes of potential and could become the next big star of the future. He recently qualified for the Champions League with his club team and will be full of confidence ahead of tomorrow’s match. At the earlier press conference, head coach Darko Nestorovic stated that: “each time we go out, we play to win, and this time there will be no exception. From our lineup you can see we’ll play aggressively, and I’m sure the boys will give their best out there. Kazakhstan is a tough and fast opponent with effective counter-attacks.” Following the words of Nestorovic, the task for the youngsters is to be cautious but to seize victory in the end.
Written by Dustin Giel
