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Turkey vs Iceland Prediction & Betting tips
Turkey is almost certainly placed for the European Championship, while Iceland can focus on the Nations League.
Turkey:
Turkey is almost certainly placed for the European Championships next summer. In contrast to Iceland’s opponent, the Turks had no escape route via the Nations League, so it had to happen in this group. The Turks have grasped their chance with verve. The difference was made primarily against the overpowered favorite for group victory and reigning world champion France. The team of national coach Senol Günes took no less than four points against the French. France was beaten 2-0 at home, while a bonus point was achieved last month when he visited Paris: 1-1. In both games, central defender Kaan Ayhan (Fortuna Düsseldorf) was accurate. Because competitor Iceland lost twice to the French and also lost to Albania, Turkey could even afford a defeat in the first leg against Iceland.
Even when Turkey also loses Iceland’s own home, the team still has everything in their own hands. In that case, Iceland comes on one point, but the Turks play against Andorra on Sunday. When winning here, the result of Thursday evening does not even matter. Of course, with any result other than a defeat, the Turks have already been placed directly on Thursday evening.
The Turks have begun a rejuvenation battle. In the selection for the upcoming qualifying matches, only three of the twenty field players are older than 30 years. In the defense, Ayhan (25 years since a few days) is even the oldest player. This promises something for the coming years, because with players such as Caglar Soyuncu (Leicester City), Merih Demiral (Juventus), Yusuf Yazici (Lille) and Cengiz Under (AS Roma) the Turks have some promising talents.
Iceland:
Iceland’s fairy tale started about four years ago when the islanders, for the first time in history, managed to qualify for a final tournament at the expense of the Dutch national team. However, it did not stop there: Iceland survived the group, eliminated England and only then stranded in the quarterfinals. After that Iceland immediately qualified for the 2018 World Cup, but in that calendar year the successes pretty much stopped.
Between January 2018 and March 2019, Iceland remained as many as 15 games without a win. In the group stage of the World Cup only one point was taken, friendly was not won eight times in a row and participation in the Nations League resulted in four defeats against Belgium and Switzerland and a goal balance of 1-13. By participating in Division A, the team of coach Erik Hamren still knows the escape clause through the play-offs.
The Icelanders are also going to have to rely on this, because direct placement no longer seems to be in it. Not completely unexpected, France was lost twice, but it was mainly the defeat against Albania that left the Icelanders without a chance for the direct ticket. With the defeat in Tirana, Iceland is now four points behind, so in a win, the team had everything under control.
Iceland still relies on its permanent experienced core, supplemented by a few young players. Basic players Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Birkir Bjarnason, Hannes Halldorsson, Ari Skulason and Kari Arnason have been there for many years. Other permanent forces such as Aron Gunnarsson and Johann Berg Gudmundsson are injured.
Turkey vs Iceland head to head matches
11.06.19 EUR Iceland Turkey 2 : 1
06.10.17 WC Turkey Iceland 0 : 3
09.10.16 WC Iceland Turkey 2 : 0
13.10.15 EUR Turkey Iceland 1 : 0
09.09.14 EUR Iceland Turkey 3 : 0