In the opening two matches of the Nations League, Turkey have won by big margins against Faroe Islands and Lithuania.
Follow Us
Luxembourg and Turkey will go head-on in a clash that will see two in-form teams going against each other in the UEFA Nations League. Saturday’s clash will be played at the Stade de Luxembourg, however, it is the visitors who will be heading into this match as favourites on paper. Be it by rankings or performances over the past decade, Turkey have been well ahead of Luxembourg. In the opening two matches of the Nations League, they have won by big margins against Faroe Islands and Lithuania. Friday’s hosts have also registered victories against the same two sides in the first two fixtures. Hence one of these two teams will end their winning run in the competition when they take on each other.
The FIFA rankings are heavily in favour of Turkey, who are placed 43, while Luxembourg are at 94th spot. However, recent results have not gone their way. Prior to the Nations League, Turkey suffered a 3-1 defeat to Portugal in the Qatar World Cup qualification round and then lost a friendly to Italy. Besides, their performance at last year’s European Championship was underwhelming after they failed to take a single point from the three group matches. Nonetheless, they started the current tournament on a positive note, winning the first two matches by scoring a combined ten goals without conceding none.
On the other hand, Luxembourg have also started the Nations League on the front foot. After beating Lithuania 2-0, they narrowly survived 1-0 against Faroe Islands in the last match. But prior to the ongoing tournament, they lost three successive matches. Besides, their run throughout 2021 has been extremely inconsistent. Nonetheless, they will take comfort from the positive start to the Nations League when they play on Friday. However, Luxembourg have to be on the top of their game against Turkey to continue their winning streak in Group C1.
READ MORE – Austria vs France: Nations League Live Stream and Probable Lineups
Not much is expected in the way of changes for both sides. There is a small concern for Luxembourg regarding the fitness of one of their players. Mathias Olesen was taken off in the last match due to what appears to be a knock. It is not yet clear whether he will be available for the home side on Saturday. Other than him, Luxembourg might not make too many changes to the squad that has been performing well so far in Nations League. On the other hand, Turkey might make some alterations to their squad after making quite a few changes to their line-up in the last match. Caglar Soyuncu, who plays for Leicester City, could return to the Starting XI. He could partner alongside Merih Demiral at the backline.
Luxembourg possible line-up: Moris, Martins, Carlson, Chanot, Pinto, Barreiro, Olesen, Pereira, Sanches, Sinani, Rodrigues
Turkey possible line-up: Cakir, Celik, Soyuncu, Demiral, Kadioglu, Ozcan, Calhanoglu, Under, Dervisoglu, Sinik, Dursun
The UEFA Nations League match between Luxembourg and Turkey will take place at the Stade de Luxembourg on Sunday, 12:15 am IST.
Select UEFA Nations League 2022-23 matches will be telecast live on the Sony TEN network in India. Besides, live streaming of these matches will be available on SonyLIV and JioTV apps and OTT platforms in India.
