Qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup commences on Wednesday afternoon as an exciting encounter between Turkey and The Netherlands at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul kicks off the road to Qatar.
Both teams will fancy their chances of qualifying for international football’s most prized tournament with fellow sides in Group G involving Norway, Montenegro, Latvia and Gibraltar.
The Oranje ended last year in a positive fashion, earning draws against Italy and Spain before beating Bosnia-Herzegovina and Poland. Frank de Boer’s men will be searching to keep up this unbeaten momentum heading into this summer’s European Championships.
This fixture away to Turkey may prove to be Holland’s toughest test of the World Cup qualifiers. Despite the Crescent-Stars losing 2-0 to Hungary in their previous match, they have risen to 32nd in the current FIFA rankings having lost just three of their last 21 matches.
Turkey also mustered respective 3-3 draws against Croatia and Germany in this time, whilst taking four points off world champions France in qualifying for the Euros.
Turkey and The Netherlands will look to follow suit in advancing to the World Cup, hoping to eradicate their misfortunes of missing out on a spot at Russia 2018.
Holland beat Turkey both times to advance to the 2014 World Cup. However, Turkey has the last laugh in the head-to-head between the two countries, winning 3-0 in a qualifying match for Euro 2016 in Konya.
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