Preview: Armenia vs. Turkey - prediction, team news, lineups

Turmoil between Armenia and Turkish allies Azerbaijan make this an extremely politically-charged encounter.

Match preview

After a sensational start to their previous qualifying campaign, Armenia enter this section with much lower hopes after a drastic falloff in form.

A nine-game unbeaten run between 2020 and 2021 included a five-game winning streak which saw Armenia win their first three 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

Georgia, Iceland and Romania were among the sides they beat and they sat top of the group involving Germany with 10 points from four games in qualification for Qatar.

All has unravelled since though, with the international retirement of Henrikh Mkhitaryan not helping matters, as Armenia took just two points from their remaining six qualifiers, finishing way off the top two.

Two wins in their last 19 fixtures also saw them relegated from League B of the UEFA Nations League last year, conceding 17 goals in their final five games.

Losing 5-0 at home to both Ukraine and North Macedonia in the last 12 months has dented confidence even further too, leaving Armenians with little hope of making progress from this group.

They have also conceded nine goals on two occasions in the past three-and-a-half years, to Italy and Norway.

This fixture will be the first played by the Turkish national side since the devastating earthquake which struck the country last month, so manager Stefan Kuntz will hope his squad can help bring the nation together at such a traumatic time.

On the pitch, it looks set to be a tricky group for Turkey to navigate, as Croatia are major competition regulars and Wales have reached three of the last four major tournaments.

With those two nations facing off in Split on the same night, Turkey must make a fast start with one or potentially both of the sides guaranteed to drop points on opening night.

Turkey cruised to promotion in the Nations League after remarkably finding themselves down in League C, but they completely took their eye off the ball, drawing at home to Luxembourg and losing in the Faroe Islands after promotion was secured.

They are the only two blips in Turkey's last eight matches since they lost to Portugal in a World Cup playoff, winning their other six matches since.

Form was rocky after being the worst-performing side at Euro 2020, but the Crescent Stars were still unlucky not to qualify for Qatar having lost only once in their section.

In a devilishly close group, they were edged out of top spot by the Netherlands, but just about made the playoffs ahead of Norway and Montenegro.

These two nations were drawn together in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, with Turkey winning both games home and away 2-0.

Armenia form (all competitions):

L

L

L

L

D

L

Turkey form (all competitions):

W

W

D

L

W

W

Team News

Armenia's star quality comes in the form of two Argentine-born attacking outlets in Lucas Zelarayan and Norberto Briasco.

Briasco has only been used sparingly since his debut five years ago and will still have to battle with Sargis Adamyan for a starting spot up front.

Grant-Leon Ranos has been rewarded with a first call-up after scoring 16 goals for Bayern Munich II so far this season.

FC Astana duo Kamo Hovhannisyan and Varazdat Haroyan are their two most experienced players and should both start on the right-hand side of Armenia's defence.

Despite never having a great record for Turkey, it will be hard for Kuntz to look past Getafe's Enes Unal as his starting striker here.

The 25-year-old has netted six goals in his last four La Liga outings before the international break, and with there still being no call up for Brighton & Hove Albion's Deniz Undav, who is yet to decide between representing Turkey or Germany, Unal should start.

There is plenty of class in the middle of the pitch for the visitors, with Hakan Calhanoglu, Orkun Kokcu and Kerem Akturkoglu all in excellent form across Europe.

The main worry is at centre-back, as Caglar Soyuncu and Merih Demiral have both barely featured this season, while Ozan Kabak has struggled at lowly Hoffenheim.

Armenia possible starting lineup:

Buchnev; Hovhannisyan, Haroyan, Voskanyan, Calisir; Barseghyan, Spertsyan, Bayramyan, Shaghoyan; Zelarayan, Adamyan

Turkey possible starting lineup:

Cakir; Zeki Celik, Soyuncu, Demiral, Elmali; Calhanoglu, Ozcan, Kokcu; Under, Unal, Akturktoglu

We say: Armenia 1-3 Turkey

Zelarayan will almost certainly play a key role if Armenia are to do anything, and he may get some joy against a fragile Turkey rearguard.

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