By Simon Wright – Follow
me on Twitter @Siwri88
England will
be expected to cruise past Moldova on Friday night in their latest World Cup qualifier
at Wembley Stadium.
However,
nothing is ever played out on paper in football; unless you play San Marino of
course which England have had the joy of whipping twice in this qualification
phase.
The teams
have met three times before and Moldova have never scored a goal in the
previous encounters. They clashed almost
a year ago to the day in Chisinau and it was a positive start to the campaign
for Roy Hodgson’s side. They won 5-0
with two goals from Jermain Defoe.
The
match was also the final one for English fans to see John Terry in an
international shirt. He limped off
injured in the closing stages of this clash, and announced his retirement just
10 days later ahead of his FA charge for racial abuse.
The other
games finished 3-0 to England in 1996 in Glenn Hoddle’s first match in charge,
and 4-0 in 1997 at Wembley on an emotional night as it was the first
competitive match played in England in the aftermath of the car crash in Paris
that claimed the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Ironically,
all three of these previous matches also took place in dates in September. A meeting between England and Moldova is one
of the first signs of autumn on the horizon, just like spring when Liverpool
and Chelsea had annual games every season in the UEFA Champions League under
the Rafa Benitez stewardship at Anfield.
Moldova is a
poor country, but they do well with the resources they have at their
disposal. Following the break-up of the
old Soviet Union, their first match as an independent nation came in July 1991
against Georgia.
Unsurprisingly
the team has never qualified for the finals of either a World Cup or European
Championship, with their best attempt coming for Euro 96. Georgia were defeated in Tbilisi and Wales
humbled 3-2 in Chisinau – a Welsh side that contained the likes of Ryan Giggs,
Mark Hughes and the late Gary Speed.
Moldova’s
highest position in the sometimes inaccurate FIFA World Rankings came in April
2008. They reached the dizzy heights of
37, ahead of the likes of Nigeria, Chile, Australia and the Republic of Ireland
at that time. They have now dropped to a
more expected position of 123, but below countries including Cyprus, Lebanon,
Azerbaijan, Niger and Benin.
When you look
at the Moldovan squad (team pictured), there are no familiar names or familiar clubs where they
play their football. However Sheriff
Tiraspol – the top club side in the country have reached the group stages of
the UEFA Europa League for the first time, and Tottenham will be facing them in
a few weeks’ time in Chisinau. The
current captain is Alexandru Epureanu.
Epureanu represents the Russian side Anzhi and has played over 50 times
for his country. That is still some way
behind Radu Rebeja’s record of 74 caps.
Rebeja featured for Moldova for over 17 years.
With only
seven UEFA teams currently ranked lower than Moldova, they are likely to be
bottom seeds for qualification for the 2016 European Championships, but they
have acquitted themselves well in this tough group.
After the
mauling to England, the Moldovans held Ukraine and Poland at home and were only
narrowly beaten by the Ukrainians in Odessa.
Any thoughts of a repeat of the 8-0 victory over San Marino in March can
be discredited straightaway.
Moldova are
no mugs at international level. England
will be expected to win and should do with little trouble but if they get
complacent, this team unit have enough about them to cause some jitters around
Wembley on Friday night.
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