Euro 2020: Ready for a Moldova Rollover?

France vs Moldova

France are about to sign off their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign with a home match against Moldova, and it’s not a case of ‘will they win’? It’s ‘by how many’?

Les Bleus have another fixture, away to Albania, next week, but their qualification will surely be in the bag at the Stade de France on Thursday night. Moldova are a full 173 places behind France in the FIFA World Rankings, down in 175^th, and Engin Firat’s team is bottom of Group H, even behind tiny Andorra on goal difference.

Turkey is level with France at the top of Group H on 19 points, though with a bigger test, at home to Iceland. But Les Bleus will rue their opportunities to put this group to bed, having drawn with the Turks last month and losing 2-0 in June in away fixture.

As all SBOBET Euro 2020 fans out there know, for this game it’s more a matter of working out the score-line rather than the result.

Talking Points

France injuries won’t help Moldova

Any other team missing players like captain Hugo Lloris, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Hernadez and Aymeric Laporte would worry, but Didier Deschamps has such a wealth of talent in his squad that it will make little difference.

France are currently sitting on the second spot of Group H Euro 2020 qualifiers — France celebrates during their Euro 2020 match

Most of his injuries are in defence, but present skipper Raphael Varane will have players of the quality of Barcelona’s Clement Lenglet and Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma around him, and he is unlikely to have a torrid time against the Moldovan attack.

At the other end of the pitch Deschamps has no such shortages. Barca’s Antoine Griezmann, FC Bayern’s Kingsley Coman and PSG’s Kylian M’Bappe are three of the best strikers in Europe, but none have scored more than Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud, who has bagged five in the competition. He provided both France’s goals in October, climbing off the bench to score against Turkey and he also hit the crucial winner against Iceland.

That made it three in four for Giroud, but he has struggled to get game time for Chelsea under Frank Lampard and that worries his national coach. He might get a start against Moldova but Nabil Fekir of Real Betis will also be pushing for a place.

The October fixtures gave France a chance to clinch the group but they didn’t. This is a golden chance to finish the job against a side hoping to avoid bottom spot.

Moldova’s low expectations

They haven’t been around for long, the Moldovan Football Federation was only founded in 1990, but Moldova have failed to make any impact on any tournament over the last three decades. Thet have finished either bottom or second bottom in every qualifying campaign they have participated in, apart from their Euro 2008 qualifying effort where they finished fifth in a group of seven.

Moldova’s best and most experienced player is Cagliari midfielder Artur Ionita, who has made over 100 appearances for the Serie A side in three seasons, but when he’s up against the likes of N’Golo Kante in the midfield battle, he’ll need rather more support than is available.

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Behind Andorra on goal difference, Moldova’s main objective is to avoid a hammering.

History

While Moldova has struggled to reach the mid-point of any qualifying group in its history, Les Bleus are twice winners of the competition, but not since 2000. Deschamps would love to see his side add the European Championships to its World Cup and will start to prepare when qualification is done and dusted.

France won the one previous match between the two sides, by 1-4, but they are the only opponents Moldova have scored against in 2019! Firat’s strugglers lost their other six games to nil, but did beat Andorra.

Les Bleus are unbeaten in five, with a home record of three wins and a draw in the competition, while Moldova has lost all four of their away fixtures.

The France vs Moldova betting odds leave us in no doubt just how big a task this is for the visitors.

Betting Tip

	France vs Moldova	Under 4.50 goals @ 1.74
	November 15, 03:45 (GMT+8)

Not only would a Moldova win or draw be one of the surprise Euro 2020 results, it would be one of the shocks of the century!

France is at odds of 1.97 with a -4.00 goal handicap, while Moldova is at 1.87 with that +4.00 goal start.

I think that could be on the money, but with no team having netted more than four times in any group match so far, and Moldova used to losing to nil, I think the value could be in under 4.50 goals…just.