France vs Moldova 15/11/19

15 November 2019

France will be looking to seal a place in Euro 2020 when they take on an out-of-sorts Moldova side at the Stade de France in the 2020 UEFA European Championship qualifying (ECQ) this midweek.

A victory here would see the hosts buy tickets for next summer’s tournament, as they sit second in the standings, four points above third-placed Iceland. Except for a 1-1 draw with Turkey last time out, Les Bleus have won all three of their previous ECQ home outings. All of those triumphs have come via a margin of at least three goals, with France conceding just once across those fixtures. What’s more, Didier Deschamps’ men have netted over 2.5 match goals in five of eight ECQ games, home and away, including four against Moldova in the reverse fixture. Since exiting the 2018 FIFA World Cup, France have racked up a nine-game unbeaten home run, friendlies included (W7, D2), scoring 2+ match goals on seven of those occasions.

Meanwhile, nailed to the bottom of the section the visitors head to Paris on a run of five consecutive defeats, all of which have seen them draw a blank. Also, Engin Fırat’s men have lost all four of their Group H road trips without scoring a single goal. No team in this section has shipped more goals than Moldova (22), with the traveling side keeping just one clean sheet in the qualifying so far. For Moldova, goals have been at a premium on the road recently, as they’ve failed to find the back of the net in all but one of their last nine road matches, friendlies included. The sole exception was a narrow 1-0 triumph over FIFA’s worst-ranked nation, San Marino, back in November 2018.