International football is back with exciting World cup qualifying fixtures. The qualifying fixtures are a treat to watch because, unlike international friendlies, the qualifying matches are more competitive and the teams look to strengthen their positions to qualify for the World Cup.
We will cover the action in Group G of the European World Cup qualifiers where the Netherlands will visit the host Turkey at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium. Both teams will try their luck of progressing from the group and will be hoping to make a brilliant start to their campaign.
Both teams will go on hard against each other in this fixture. The match will be played behind closed doors due to COVID-19 restrictions. So, the home advantage will not play a role in this fixture due to the absence of fans.
Turkey
Turkey failed to give an impressive performance in the Nations League, with the team finishing at the bottom of the table, and it is no surprise they are seen as underdogs in Wednesday’s match. The good news for Turk’s boss Senol Gunes is that Lille forward Burak Yilmaz has recovered from his injury. As always, the eyes will be on the home team’s Milan ace Hakan Calhanoglu.
Turkey will be going into this match with a 2-0 defeat against Hungary in the UEFA Nations League match back in November. They posed danger in spells but failed to find the critical partnership in attack.
The result implies that the Turks have been relegated in the competition and they will be looking for a better campaign in the World Cup qualifiers. Their form has not been good previously and they go into Wednesday’s fixture with one win in from their last eight games.
Netherlands
The Dutch finished second in the group of Nations League after winning the last two, they’ll be confident of prolonging this run. In their last game, they came back from behind to beat Poland 2-1 away from home and are going to this fixture undefeated in five games.
Frank De Boer’s men have been solid in their previous outings and head to Turkey undefeated. They are also enjoying an undefeated run in seven away matches, though three of the last four matches have ended without any result.
The Dutch team possesses a lot of excellence in attack and has managed to score in every of their last four fixtures. Their major concern is a disorganized defense as they could not keep any clean sheets in that run.
Head to head statistics
The Netherlands has an upper hand in this fixture claiming five wins from a total of ten matches. On the other hand, Turkey managed to win two games, and three games ended in a draw.
The last time these two faced each other was back in 2015, where Turkey went rampage over the Dutch and beat them three goals to nil.
Prediction
Turkey has a good defense and The Netherlands has a good attack. Since star defender Van Dijk is still in doubt for this game, we will surely see Netherland leaking some goals. So, we suggest betting over 2.5 goals and a win for the Netherlands.
