WORLD CUP: MOLDOVA'S QUALIFYING CAMPAIGN EXAMINED

Moldovian football suffered a big setback when the senior national team players were on the receiving end of an 8-0 mauling at the hands of top seed Denmark in Group F of the European qualifiers as far as the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar is concerned.

In just their second game in the group, Moldova suffered the heavy defeat away to Denmark.MikkelDamsgaard scored twice for the hosts in the first half after Kasper Dolberg had given the Danish team the lead from the penalty spot on 19 minutes. Jens Stryger Larsen added a fourth goal on 35 minutes before Mathias Jensen scored the fifth goal four minutes later.

Denmark led 5-0 at the interval before they went on to add three more goals in the second half to hand Moldovian football the heaviest defeat of the European qualifiers after the first three set of games played last month.

Dolberg scored the first of those three goals with three second half minutes on the clock. Denmark had to wait for a whole 33 minutes before the seventh goal arrived through Robert Skov. Marcus Ingvartsen then scored the eighth and final goal of the game eight minutes later to wrap up the mauling for Moldova and Moldovian football in general.

The trashing received at the hands of the Danish team came after Moldova had been forced to a 1-1 draw at home to the Faroe Islands. The Moldovans took the lead during that game but they could not hold on for the points after the visitors equalised in the final seven minutes.

Moldova also took the lead at home to Israel in their third and final game of the March international break only to concede four goals to Israel with three goals coming in the second half courtesy Manor Solomon, MunasDabbur andBibrasNatkho. The Israel equaliser had arrived on the stroke of half-time through EranZahavi.

At the end of the first three games in Group F, Moldova are last on the six-team table with one point. They have the same number of points as the Faroe Islands in fifth position. Denmark lead the group with a maximum nine points from the three games, while Scotland is second with five points. Israel and Austria are in third and fourth position respectively but they both have five points.