Armenia-Turkey is a match from the first day of Euro 2024 qualifying group D and is played on Saturday at 18:00: tv, predictions.
Not a soft start for Turkey, the other big favourite along with Croatia for direct qualification to Euro 2024. And the reasons go beyond purely footballing matters. With Armenia’s ‘neighbours’, in fact, diplomatic relations have practically always been non-existent. In recent decades, the tension between the two countries – historically enemies – has been heightened by the Turkish government’s support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, a territory disputed between Armenians and Azeris.
The last time Turkey and Armenia played each other on a playing field was in 2008 and 2009, as part of the South African World Cup qualifiers. The crescent moon national team prevailed in both the first leg and the return leg – on both occasions with a 2-0 result – and the meeting between the two presidents of the respective federations was considered somewhat historic: it also fostered a brief thaw. Returning to the present day, Turkey was one of the unexcused absentees at Qatar 2022: arriving in the group behind the Netherlands, they went out in the first of the two play-offs against Ronaldo’s Portugal. It fared better in the last Nations League, where it immediately regained the B League, easily winning the group with Luxembourg, the Faroe Islands and Lithuania.
Turkey, Unal is ‘on fire’
Turkey’s selector, the German Stefan Kuntz, can count on a lot of quality in midfield and attack: Calhanoglu, Kokçu and Akturkoglu are in good form, as well as striker Unal, who is scoring goals in bunches for Getafe.
Petrakov
Armenia had shown encouraging signs in the first part of the World Cup qualifiers, going on to win three matches in a row, but since then the Caucasians have only had one success in official competitions, which did not help them avoid relegation to Nations League C. Mkhitaryan’s retirement, meanwhile, has made everything more difficult: the Inter Milan player was for many years the charismatic leader as well as the most talented element of the Armenian selection. The current coach is Ukrainian Oleksandr Petrakov – in February 2022 he made headlines for enlisting with his country’s armed forces after the outbreak of war – who replaced Spaniard Joaquin Caparros last January.
The Prediction
Turkey must make sure they don’t make life difficult for themselves. And the opportunity is a very good one, bearing in mind that Wales, the direct competitor for second place, will face Croatia on matchday one. The hosts are favourites, but it cannot be ruled out that Armenia will score at least one goal, in light of the defensive problems of the two Turkish centre-backs, Soyuncu and Demiral, who have played little at their respective clubs.
The likely line-up for Armenia-Turkey
- ARMENIA (4-4-2): Buchnev; Hovhannisyan, Haroyan, Voskanyan, Calisir; Barseghyan, Spertsyan, Bayramyan, Shaghoyan; Zelarayan, Adamyan.
- TURKEY (4-3-3): Cakir; Celik, Soyuncu, Demiral, Elmali; Calhanoglu, Ozcan, Kokcu; Under, Unal, Akturkoglu.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
