How it happened
Tomas Švedkauskas made six saves for Lithuania, but one goal was enough for Azerbaijan. They won 1-0 at the Neftçi Arena in Baku on 4 October, in League D, Group 2 of the UEFA Nations League.
A. Khaybulaev settled the match in the 25th minute, and Azerbaijan led 1-0 at half-time. Neither side scored after the break in cloudy conditions at 17C. The 13:00 UTC kick-off was refereed by Gustavo Correia.
Lithuania finished with ten men. A. Kučys was sent off in the seventh minute of stoppage time, too late to change the outcome.
The numbers
Lithuania had 62% of the possession, but Azerbaijan had the clearer chances. Both sides had 13 shots. Azerbaijan put seven of theirs on target to Lithuania's three, and produced 1.94 expected goals to 1.15. The xG figures suggest the home side deserved their lead.
Švedkauskas faced seven shots on target and stopped six of them. His match rating of 8.2 shows how much he did to keep the margin to a single goal.
Rüfat Abbasov matched that rating of 8.2 for Azerbaijan, with one key pass and 57 touches in midfield across 90 minutes. At the other end, Emil Balayev made three saves to keep a clean sheet and earned a match rating of 7.7. Lithuania had more corners, five to two, but could not turn that pressure into a goal.
What it means
This was the third meeting between the sides. Azerbaijan have one win and Lithuania none, with two draws and an average of one goal per game. The other two meetings both ended level: 1-1 in Lithuania on 27 September, and 0-0 in Azerbaijan in March 2019.
The two sides' recent records are almost identical. Each has three wins, two draws and five defeats from ten matches, an average of 1.1 points per game. Azerbaijan have scored seven and conceded 14 in that run, while Lithuania have scored nine and conceded 12. The fine margins in this match fit those evenly matched records.