Moldova vs Turkey 11/09/19

11 September 2019

Turkey will look to increase their chances of reaching the 2020 Euro final tournament via the European Championship qualifying (ECQ) when they take on Moldova at the Stadionul Zimbru this midweek.

Aside from a 1-0 home win over Andorra, the hosts have lost all the remaining four games in Group H, conceding a total of 13 goals while scoring barely one across those fixtures. Semen Altman’s men have allowed over 1.5 match goals in all four of those failures, trailing at the break on three occasions in the process. Putting their wins over Andorra and San Marino aside, Moldova have failed to pick up a win at home in their last 12 competitive home games – stretching back to November 2014 (D3, L9). The biggest concern is that six of those defeats saw them struggle to find the back of the net while six of them came by way of a multiple-goal margin.

Meanwhile, the visitors have so far enjoyed a successful ECQ campaign having won four of five matches in Group H (W4, L1). Notably, all of those wins have seen Turkey beat their rivals to nil, with three of them witnessing Şenol Güneş’s men pick up the lead inside the opening 30 minutes. Still, the Crescent-Stars have endured mixed fortunes when away from home over the past two years, as they’ve secured just two wins in six competitive trips in that span (W2, D1, L3). Also, they’ve conceded precisely two goals in five of those matches, with their defense capitulating before the halftime whistle four times in the process.