Preview: Moldova vs. Denmark - prediction, team news, lineups

Moldova welcome Denmark to the Zimbru Stadium in Chisinau on Saturday evening for the latest round of World Cup 2022 European qualifiers.

The two sides sit at opposite ends of Group F with the hosts on just one point and their upcoming opponents having achieved perfection to this point.

Match preview

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The world's 180th-best national team have, unsurprisingly, never qualified for a major international tournament in their 27-year history and have won just five of their 63 World Cup qualifiers.

Moldova's most recent game against the Faroe Islands gave them one of their better chances to pick up some points as they took on the fourth-smallest UEFA country by population.

However, they were unable to do so, as a Nicolae Milinceanu goal proved to be just a consolation in a 2-1 loss.

Their 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture back in March remains their only point of the campaign and The Selectionata have now won just one of their last 24 games in all competitions, losing 20 of them.

That victory did come recently, though, with a 1-0 win at home to Azerbaijan in a friendly at the start of June, so perhaps head coach Roberto Bordin will be able to fashion a motivational team talk out of that.

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He will have to be creative to do so, as his side will be taking on a Denmark side who have accumulated maximum points from their first six games in Group F, scoring 22 goals in the process and conceding none.

After their fairytale story at Euro 2020 ended in heartbreak at the hands of England and a Harry Kane stoppage-time winner, the Danes bounced back with characteristic determination in September's qualifiers.

Two goals in two minutes were enough to secure victory over Scotland, but the Faroe Islands then surprised their all-conquering visitors with a commendable defensive display and it took 85 minutes for Denmark to conjure up a winner, eventually coming via the head of Jonas Wind.

A 5-0 thrashing of Israel completed a successful international break for Kasper Hjulmand and his side, who will secure one of the two qualification spots with a win on Saturday and could even all-but-mathematically secure the top spot - with three games to spare - if the Scotland-Israel game ends in a draw.

The heroes of the summer just keep going from strength to strength.

Team News

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Moldova's Artur Ionita has served his suspension but has not been chosen for the squad, so Cristian Dros will likely retain his spot in the middle of the park.

The team has now lost left-back Oleg Reabciuk to a ban for Saturday's game, meaning Sergiu Platica may have to shift over to the left.

With the tougher prospect of Austria to come in three days, some of Denmark's senior players may be rested for this game, with Premier League regulars Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Andreas Christensen the most likely candidates considering they are one yellow card away from a suspension.

Hjulmand fielded an entire second-string XI in the reverse fixture with Moldova and still secured an emphatic 8-0 win, so he will be confident in whatever team he chooses to field.

Yussuf Poulsen looks set to lead the line and will be aiming to add to the single goal he has notched so far in five appearances during the campaign.

Moldova possible starting lineup:

Avram; Bolohan, Armas, Posmac; Jardan, Dros, Rata, Platica; Antoniuc, Nicolaescu; Ginsari

Denmark possible starting lineup:

Schmeichel; Wass, Anderson, Vestergaard, Larsen; Jensen, Norgaard, Delaney; Daramy, Poulsen, Skov Olsen

We say: Moldova 0-3 Denmark

Denmark conceding their first goal of the campaign to lowly Moldova seems unlikely and, despite probably fielding something of a B-team, it should simply be a matter of how many goals the Danes score.