Moldavian Football

Moldovan football has received a major boost with the news that youngster Virgiliu Postolachi has been able to agree a professional contract with Paris St Germain. The French club are regarded as one of the biggest in the world and they are home to players like Neymar and Edinson Cavani. However, they have been ready to hand out a three-year contract forPostolachi after the youngster sufficiently impressed the club officials during training. Speaking in delight about the news,Postolachi claimed that he has been looking forward to this opportunity throughout his career.

After coming from Edinet,Postolachi started his career with PSG back in 2013. The major shift for the youngster began in the current year when he was called up by Moldova national team bossAlexandru Spiridon. Even though he may not be currently part of the national team, it is down to a family reason.Postolachi is expected to be one of the key members of the national team for the next decade. The contract with PSG is likely to providePostolachi a huge amount of knowledge – even if it is unlikely to provide any first-team appearances. The player is likely to be sent out on loan for the next few years before he becomes ready for contention in the PSG first team.

Moldovan football received a major boost in European competition to winPetrocubwere able to get a 1-1 draw withOsijek in the first leg of the Europa League qualifiers. As a result of finishing in the top three places,Petrocub were awarded a place in the Europa League qualifying and the team are fighting to reach the group stages of the competition. Even though the Moldovan outfit will have to go through several phases before they can think about a group stage finish, they have received a positive result in the form of a draw withOsijek in the first leg. The team still leads to complete the job in the second leg at Stadion Gradskivrt but there is confidence that Moldovan football will be able to receive a major boost.

Lilian Popescu, who is in charge of the Moldovan team, claimed that it was certainly an extremely difficult match for his team. Even with lower competitive experience,Petrocub were able to get a positive result and he is extremely happy with the performance from his team. In the second leg, however,Popescu is hoping for an even better performance. A number of players do not have experience of top-level European football but it is expected that such measures will only help the team going forward. Opposition manager Zoran Zekic was complimentary of the performances fromPetrocub.

Wales left it late to beat lowly Moldova as goals from Hal Robson-Kanu and Aaron Ramsey gave them a second win in four days to keep their hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup alive.

Wales had revived their prospects of qualifying with a dramatic win over Austria in Cardiff three days earlier, as Woodburn came on to score a fabulous long-range goal just four minutes into his international debut.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has sent an invite to Moldova president Igor Dodon to make a visit to Russia in order to witness the 2018 World Cup. Moldova were not expected to reach the World Cup finals as one of the minnows in the game. It proved to be the case as the national team ended up finishing at the bottom of their qualification group, which also contained the likes of Georgia. Moldova ended up taking only two points from the World Cup group and failed to win a single game out of the 10.

The winless run for Moldova extended after the team fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Ivory Coast in the latest international friendly match. The African team certainly had the better start in the game and they were able to open the scoring in the 20^th minute through Roger Assale. But the crucial goal in the game came just before half-time when Nicholas Pepe scored the second for Ivory Coast. Even though Moldova were able to pull one back in the second half through Artur Ionita, it was not sufficient for the team to get anything out of the game.

Moldova players are extremely delighted that a coach of a very high calibre is in charge of the national team. Alexandru Spiridon is from Moldova and he has been instilled as the new coach of the national team. He comes in to replace Igor Dobrovolski, who spent only 18 matches at the helm of the national team.

Antony Golec is one of the few high profile players who has been able to experience Moldavian football at its best. The Australian represented one of Moldova teams for a short period of time, as he represented Sheriff Tiraspol. Moldova is one of the young and upcoming nations when it comes to football. The nation has a limited supply of local talent and they have had a policy of bringing in high profile foreigners in order to spice up the league.

Saudi Arabia have announced a friendly with Moldova in the latter part of February. The latter may be one of the minnows when it comes to world football, but Saudi Arabia need a lot of preparation for the upcoming World Cup. Manager Juan Antonio Pizzi has been able to get Saudi Arabia into the World Cup 2018 and they have been in full swing with regard to preparations. The second stage of those preparations will see them head into the city of Jeddah towards the end of February.

Moldova are not expected to go lightly on this match, as it gives a great opportunity for the national team to get a first victory in 10 matches. The last victory for Moldova was in a friendly match just under a year ago. The friendly with San Marino saw Moldova getting a 2-0 victory back in March 2017. Since then, they have been able to get just three draws – the latest coming in the game against Azerbaijan in January. As expected, Moldova had a disappointing World Cup 2018 qualification campaign and could only muster a return of just two points from 10 matches. The team finished bottom of the group – three points behind Georgia.

Republic of Ireland winger Steven O'Dowda feels his recent club form has been attributed to his showing against Moldova last month. The 22-year-old was brought into the starting lineup in a must-win game with both Robbie Brady and James McClean suspended.

O'Dowda was one of the standout performers during the game in which Daryl Murphy took the plaudits for his brace in the first-half. Ireland have since secured a place in the World Cup playoffs against Denmark in November after grabbing a hard-fought 1-0 win over Wales to clinch second spot in their group.

Ireland go into the game against Denmark searching for a positive result which would help them get beyond the highs and lows. The national team has been going to a difficult period while also enjoying some high moments like qualification to the World Cup in 2002 and reaching the euro 2012 and 2016. As the national team prepares to take on Denmark, it appears that Ireland are drawing inspiration from the positive performance against Moldova in a recent game. Ireland were able to get a crucial 2-0 victory over Moldova in this game.

Even though this result meant that Moldova ended up a team with three consecutive losses, Ireland were able to take a lot of positives. One player who has benefited from the result is Callum O’Dowda, who was able to feature ahead of Robbie Brady and James McLean because both players were unavailable due to injuries.