Moldova vs Estonia prediction: EUROPE: World Championship – Qualification betting tips on match 2025-03-24 17:00.
[p]After beginning their 2026 World Cup qualifying (WCQ) campaign with a 5-0 home thrashing at the hands of Norway on Saturday evening, Moldova return to action three days later to take on Estonia. A response certainly isn’t guaranteed given you’d have to go back to October 2013 to find the last time the Tricolours won a WCQ game (D3, L18), losing their last ten such games.[/p]
[p]There was an element of surprise by the scale of Saturday’s defeat though, as Serghei Cleșcenco’s side had lost only two of their previous ten home games (W5, D3). Getting back to winning ways on Tuesday might be tricky given Moldova have failed to score across their last four H2Hs (D1, L3) with Estonia, while their only previous victory against them came back in 1998. Incredibly, none of the five historical H2Hs between these two have ever seen more than one goal in the game![/p]
[p]Despite ending a scoring drought of three games when taking an early lead against Israel on Saturday, Estonia also fell to a defeat in their Group I opener. Like their opponents in this fixture, Estonia have never reached a World Cup or European Championship finals and they will arrive at the Stadionul Zimbru with a very poor recent record on foreign soil of only one victory from March 2023 onwards (D2, L11).[/p]
[p]Even that solitary win came via a penalty shootout, and it outlines the scale of the task for Jürgen Henn’s team, who are targeting a fourth successive victory over Moldova. A mere two away wins across the last four WCQ cycles underlines how tough this game will be for Estonia, but they can perhaps take a crumb of comfort from the fact both victories came against sides who, like Moldova, are ranked lower than them by FIFA.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Prior to Saturday’s loss, Moldova had scored five times across their previous three home games, with Mihail Caimacov involved in two of them (G1, A1) – both contributions came before half-time. Maksim Paskotši got Estonia’s goal against Israel and he has now either scored or been booked in three of his last five international appearances on foreign soil.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Each of Moldova’s last five home games saw the victorious side ahead at half-time and record a clean sheet.  [/p]
[p][i]Written by Tom Penn[/i][/p]