Turkey vs Uzbekistan Predictions

Can Turkey warm up for their crunch European qualifier with a result on Sunday night? They’ve been busy in recent weeks, as this is their second warm-up clash ahead of a doubleheader in the European Championship qualifiers. They are at home to Uzbekistan this weekend, with the visitors aiming to boost their rotten form in recent weeks. However, the visitors are heavy outsiders ahead of this trip, as they meet a Turkey side who have been enjoying a brilliant 2019 so far.

The hosts were 2-1 winners against Greece on Thursday, with a victory in that clash extending their unbeaten run to eight matches unbeaten in non-competitive games. However, Turkey are focusing on their competitive matches, with the hosts facing a massive game at home in a few days time. They are taking on world champions France in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, with Turkey in a tricky group with three sides who made the last Euros. With Albania and Iceland making slow starts, a win for Turkey this week would push them towards the Euros.

Uzbekistan were able to win 1-0 against China in the China Cup in March, as they finished up third in that tournament. However, they are struggling overall, as that narrow success was their only win in their last four games. They have a dodgy record behind them on the road, with just two wins in their last 14 on their travels. In that time they’ve lost 11 times, while they’ve failed to score in just nine of their last 13 matches away from home. Given that record, it’s hard to see them getting anything out of this clash.

Turkey have won all three of their games in 2019, a record they’ll want to maintain ahead of that big encounter with France. They are coming into this one following a 2-0 win at Albania and a 4-0 victory over Moldova in the qualifiers. They’re looking strong right now, so we don’t expect Uzbekistan to get anything from this clash.

Given the visitors’ low scoring record and poor away form, we see them losing without scoring here. Uzbekistan have lost six of their last seven away matches, with four of their last five seeing under 2.5 goals. Meanwhile, Turkey have seen fewer than four goals in their last five home friendlies, so we’re backing a home win in this clash with less than four goals scored.