BELIEVE

The manager of the Moldovan national football team, Ion Caras, has said that the goalless draw that his team pulled off in a World Cup qualifying game against Ukraine last year gave them the belief that they can do well against the good sides.

Moldova’s performance in the recent past has been fantastic. Yes, they couldn’t make it to the World Cup finals, but, they impressed everybody with the way they played in the second half of their World Cup qualifying campaign. Against the teams which were higher in World rankings than them, they pulled off fantastic results and ended up finishing at no. 5 in the points table of their group. They managed to secure a total of 11 points which was just 2 less than the total no. of points achieved by Poland.

In its last couple of World Cup qualifying games, Moldova secured huge wins. First, they thrashed San Marino by 3-0 at home and then, in an away game against Montenegro, they won by 5-2. Because of those two wins, they moved up significantly in the world rankings and made their way into top 100. At this point of time, they are at the 96th position in the FIFA rankings.

When Caras was asked about the recent performances of the Moldovan team, he said, “I think that goalless draw against Ukraine towards the end of the last year was the turning point for us. It was clear that Ukraine had a stronger squad than us, but, we fought collectively and ended up stopping them on draw. That result made us believe that we can put up good performances against top sides.”
From Moldova’s World Cup qualifying group i.e. Group H; it was England which qualified for the finals.