Turkey takes on the visitors Croatia at “Yeni Eskisehir Stadyumu” in the round eight of the Europe’s Qualifiers Group stage for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. The match will be played in Eskisehir on Tuesday, September 5th.
In summer Turkey A-team went through the replacement of the head-coach. “Ay-Yıldızlılar” showed suitable results in this qualification campaign under the rule of the notorious Fatih Terim, however, he had to quite his position because of the scandal concerning the fight in restaurant, still, Fatih Terim‘s position was handled after his retirement to another extremely popular coach in Turkey - Mircea Lucescu. After six gameweeks, the Turks settle on the third place in the Group I with 11 points earned and 11-6 goal difference and their forthcoming battles against Ukraine and Croatia may either to turn Turkey into the Group leader, or to leave the side without any chances for a trip to the Mundial. The Turks participated in three matches at the home ground within the qualification, having got triumphs over Kosovo 2:0 and Finland 2:0 alongside with 2:2 draw vs. Ukraine.
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The Croatians had to gain three points easily in their head-to-head against Kosovo in face of their supporters on the 2nd of September and to hunt for a victory in Turkey because of 0:1 defeat to Iceland in the sixth qualify round. As a result of that failure, Croatia shares the first-second positions in the Group I with the Icelanders, having earned 13 points with 11-2 goal difference and having lost the right of losing points in the rest of the encounters. Ante Cacic’s side conducted three games on the road covering 0:1 defeat to Iceland, 6:0 triumph over Kosovo and 1:0 victory against Finland.
The Turks and the Croatians met seven times in their history and “Ay-Yıldızlılar” failed to win even once in the regular time while Croatia got three triumphs and four draws in them including 1:1 draw in the first lap in Zagreb. In recent years the Croatians have been stronger not only by the roster, but also by the play, therefore I presume that this time the visitors will also manage to pick up points.
Prediction for the match: Croatia to win with 0.0 Asian handicap.
