Moldavian Football

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.

Ireland assistant coach Roy Keane insists that Everton should take responsibility for James McCarthy's recurrent injury problems over the past year.

The former Wigan Athletic man is a doubt ahead of Ireland's crucial World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Wales. The 26-year-old has played no part for the Toffees this term with a persistent knee injury, and this has developed an increasingly tetchy stand-off over the fitness between club and country.

Speaking at a news conference, Keane appeared to put Everton at blame for the player's failure to overcome his problem, he said: "James seems to be getting a lot of injuries at Everton so I don’t think we’ve anything to be worried about in terms of how much we push James. The medical staff are overseeing all of it and are in contact with Everton and all their scientists. I think they’ve more scientists involved than there needs to be. I always think clubs, as much as they look at what we’re doing, they certainly have to have look at what they are doing themselves. But James seems pretty upbeat and we’re glad to have him here."

Chris Coleman has hailed his Wales side for grinding out a result in Chisinau on Tuesday night.

The Euro 2016 semi-finalists looked destined to settle for a 0-0 draw against Moldova in the World Cup qualifier but late goals from Hal Robson-Kanu and Aaron Ramsey sealed a hard-fought 2-0 win over their European counterparts.

Brazilian forward Neymar said that he is interested in winning the World Cup with Brazil.

He stated that it is high time that the Brazilian team wins this trophy again and that he will do everything he can to achieve it in the next World Cup in Russia.

The player who has recently moved from Barcelona to French side Paris Saint Germain said that the whole Brazilian population is behind the team and that they want to win this competition. He admitted that the team was disappointed after their last world cup and that they will be hoping that this time around it will be different.

Former Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, Adelaide United and Perth Glory defender Antony Golec has decided to move back to the A-League with Central Coast Mariners.

The 27-year-old has seen out the past year in Moldova, Iran and South Korea, one of his honours was the Moldovan National Division title won in the 2015-16 season.

The defender, who played under Mariners boss Paul Okon for the Olyroos, alleged the eight months just gone was a “nightmare”.

It was way back in March and the Austrians found themselves sweating it against the Moldovans in the early rounds of Europe’s World Cup qualifiers.

15 minutes from time and Marko Arnautiovic finally broke the deadlock before Harnik added one at the dead end to make it 2-0.

In about a year, the 2018 World Cup would kick off in Russia yet the excitement is yet to kick in. Compared to the hype and anticipation of previous versions of the World Cup, the forthcoming one is not sending a strong signal.

The excitement about the 2002 event in Korea/Japan was amazing as the Asians wanted to wow the world with its advanced technology and infrastructures. It was a decent build up after the 1998 World Cup in France, where football was played unadulterated. The 2006 event in Germany fit the hype as European sides wanted to impress. It ended in Zinedine Zidane’s poor exit and Italy’s sweet story.

When Brendan Rodgers moved to Celtic, many saw it as a poor move to a more relaxed sphere after his time at Anfield. A season later, Celtic did an unbeaten.

They are proud new owners of the ‘Invincibles’ tag.

The Scottish Premiership side won the title back in April but there was still serious pressure until the last game as other sides wanted to defeat them. Leigh Griffiths and Stuart Armstrong scored to seal a 2-0 victory over their opponents. The record books confirm the league record for 2016/17 as P38 W34 D4 L0.The L0 is the most significant here.