Poland will host Moldova in a friendly game on Friday, with both teams getting ready for their matches in the World Cup qualifiers a few days after their duel.
With a couple of wins to start the WC qualifiers, the Polish team enters this international window in a good mood, especially since they've previously been on a five-game winless streak. All of those winless matches were in the UEFA Nations League, where Poland was demoted to League B of the competition after finishing last in their group with just four points from six games.
On the other hand, Moldova had a much different experience in the latest edition of the UEFA Nations League since they finished at the top of their group in League D and secured promotion to the higher rank. However, Moldova enter this game after losing both of their matches in the WC qualifiers.
How the bookies view it: Bookies don't doubt Poland
The hosts are the clear and absolute favourites in this match with 2/9 odds at Boylesports. Moldova are huge underdogs with 10/1 odds, while a draw comes with 9/2 odds at Boylesports.
Recent head-to-head: A close contest lately
These two teams have met in the previous EURO qualifiers and Moldova have surprisingly managed to notch their first-ever win over Poland, while their other meeting ended in a draw.
That being said, Poland are still ahead when it comes to their overall H2H record, with five wins in eight games against Moldova.
Players to watch: Poland's forwards to step up with Lewandowski missing
With Robert Lewandowski out of the squad for this game, Poland will have to rely on other players to provide goals, primarily their two forwards Krzysztof Piatek and Karol Swiderski.
Both Piatek and Swiderski are experienced players, with plenty of matches in the Polish national team. In fact, they have pretty similar stats – Piatek has 12 goals in 35 games and Swiderski has 13 goals in 40 games for Poland.
At Boylesports, the odds for Piatek to score are 20/21, while the odds for Swiderski to score are 5/4. While both of these sound tempting, Swiderski enters this match in better form, at least when it comes to the national team, since he scored a brace in the team's previous outing against Malta.
Predicted line-ups
As we mentioned above, Lewandowski won't be playing for Poland in this match. The team's captain and best-ever scorer received a break after a gruelling season, so he's officially out with fatigue.
Poland: Skorupski, Wieteska, Bednarek, Kiwior, Moder, Frankowski, Szymanski, Bogusz, Kaminski, Swiderski, Piatek
Moldova: Koshukhar, Revenco, Craciun, Baboglo, Reabciuk, Motpan, Rata, Postolachi, Caimacov, Bodisteanu, Nicolaescu
Anything else catch the eye?
Based on the previous meetings between these two teams, we wouldn't be surprised to see Moldova score in this match. After all, they've scored in three of their last four games against Poland and over 0.5 total away goals comes with even odds at Boylesport.
Of course, we also expect Poland to score, and they will most likely draw the first blood. In four of their previous five meetings with Moldova, Poland have scored the first goal, so we can see that happening in this match too. However, the odds on this market are 2/9 at Boylesports, so we would instead tweak the bet a bit and go with Poland to score in both halves at 5/6 odds.
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