Moldova national football team

 Moldova

Association	Federaţia Moldovenească de Fotbal
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Gavril Balint
Captain	Alexandru Epureanu
Most caps	Radu Rebeja (74)
Top scorer	Serghei Cleşcenco (11)
Home stadium	Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău
FIFA code	MDA
FIFA ranking	123
Highest FIFA ranking	37 (April 2008)
Lowest FIFA ranking	149 (May 1994)
Elo ranking	112
Highest Elo ranking	86 (February 2008)
Lowest Elo ranking	130 (October/November 2002)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Moldova 2 – 4 Georgia (Chişinău, Moldova; July 2, 1991)
Biggest win
Moldova 5 – 0 Pakistan (Amman, Jordan; August 18, 1992)
Biggest defeat
Sweden 6 – 0 Moldova (Gothenburg, Sweden; June 6, 2001)

The Moldova national football team (Romanian: Echipa naţională de fotbal a Moldovei) represents Moldova in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of Moldova, the governing body for football in Moldova. Moldova's home ground is Zimbru Stadium in Chişinău and their head coach is Gavril Balint. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Georgia on July 2, 1991.

Their two best results came during the qualifiers for Euro 96, with wins over Georgia (1–0) in Tbilisi and Wales (3–2) in Chişinău. The team has never qualified for the final stages of the European Championship or the FIFA World Cup.

Following Moldova's 4–0 defeat to England in September 1997 the British writer and comedian Tony Hawks travelled to Moldova to challenge and beat all 11 Moldovan international footballers at tennis. The feature film version of the book of the same name, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis, was filmed in and around Chişinău in May and June 2010 and is to be released in the spring of 2012.

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup record

• 1930 to 1938 – Did not enter, was part of Romania
• 1950 to 1994 – Did not enter, was part of USSR
• 1998 to 2010 – Did not qualify

UEFA European Championship record

UEFA European Championship record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960–1992	Part of  Soviet Union
1996	Did Not Qualify
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016	To Be Determined

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - UEFA Group 2

Teamv · d · e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Switzerland 10 6 3 1 18 8 +10 21  Greece 10 6 2 2 20 10 +10 20  Latvia 10 5 2 3 18 15 +3 17  Israel 10 4 4 2 20 10 +10 16  Luxembourg 10 1 2 7 4 25 −21 5  Moldova 10 0 3 7 6 18 −12 3

Greece  – 2 – 1 5 – 2 2 – 1 3 – 0 1 – 2 Israel  1 – 1 – 0 – 1 7 – 0 3 – 1 2 – 2 Latvia  0 – 2 1 – 1 – 2 – 0 3 – 2 2 – 2 Luxembourg  0 – 3 1 – 3 0 – 4 – 0 – 0 0 – 3 Moldova  1 – 1 1 – 2 1 – 2 0 – 0 – 0 – 2 Switzerland  2 – 0 0 – 0 2 – 1 1 – 2 2 – 0 –

UEFA Euro 2012 qualification

Main article: UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying Group E

Teamv · d · e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Netherlands 10 9 0 1 37 8 +29 27  Sweden 10 8 0 2 31 11 +20 24  Hungary 10 6 1 3 22 14 +8 19  Finland 10 3 1 6 16 16 0 10  Moldova 10 3 0 7 12 16 −4 9  San Marino 10 0 0 10 0 53 −53 0

Finland  — 1–2 4–1 0–2 8–0 1–2 Hungary  0–0 — 2–1 0–4 8–0 2–1 Moldova  2–0 0–2 — 0–1 4–0 1–4 Netherlands  2–1 5–3 1–0 — 11–0 4–1 San Marino  0–1 0–3 0–2 0–5 — 0–5 Sweden  5–0 2–0 2–1 3–2 6–0 —

Matches

Upcoming fixtures

Date	Tournament	Location	Opponent
11 November 2011	International Friendly	Tbilisi	Georgia

Recent results

Main article: Moldova national football team matches

Date	Tournament	Location	Opponent	Result	Scorers
3 March 2010	International Friendly	Antalya	Kazakhstan	Won 1–0	Alexandru Epureanu
26 May 2010	International Friendly	Seekirchen	Azerbaijan	Drew 1–1	Andrei Cojocari
29 May 2010	International Friendly	Anif	United Arab Emirates	Lost 3–2	Igor Ţîgîrlaş, Simeon Bulgaru
11 August 2010	International Friendly	Chişinău	Georgia	Drew 0–0
3 September 2010	UEFA Euro 2012	Chişinău	Finland	Won 2–0	Alexandr Suvorov, Anatolie Doroş
7 September 2010	UEFA Euro 2012	Budapest	Hungary	Lost 2–1	Alexandr Suvorov
8 October 2010	UEFA Euro 2012	Chişinău	Netherlands	Lost 0–1
12 October 2010	UEFA Euro 2012	Serravalle	San Marino	Won 0–2	Igor Bugaiov, Anatolie Doroş
6 February 2011	International Friendly	Algarve	Poland	Lost 0–1
9 February 2011	International Friendly	Lagos	Andorra	Won 2–1	Igor Picuşceac, Igor Bugaiov
29 March 2011	UEFA Euro 2012	Solna	Sweden	Lost 1–2	Alexandru Suvorov
3 June 2011	UEFA Euro 2012	Chişinău	Sweden	Lost 1–4	Igor Bugaiov
2 September 2011	UEFA Euro 2012	Helsinki	Finland	Lost 4–1	Serghei Alexeev
6 September 2011	UEFA Euro 2012	Chişinău	Hungary	Lost 0–2
7 October 2011	UEFA Euro 2012	Rotterdam	Netherlands	Lost 1–0
11 October 2011	UEFA Euro 2012	Chişinău	San Marino	Won 4–0	Denis Zmeu, Simone Bacciocchi a.g., Alexandr Suvorov, Gheorghe Andronic

Current squad

Competition: UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying matches
Match Date: 11 October 2011
Opposition:  San Marino

Caps and goals are correct as of 7 October 2011.

0#0 Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Stanislav Namaşco November 10, 1986 (1986-11-10) (age 25) 25 0 Spartak Nalchik 12 GK Artiom Gaiduchevici April 22, 1987 (1987-04-22) (age 24) 3 0 Dacia Chişinău 2 DF Igor Armaş July 14, 1987 (1987-07-14) (age 24) 21 1 Kuban Krasnodar 3 DF Victor Golovatenco April 28, 1984 (1984-04-28) (age 27) 34 2 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 DF Maxim Potîrniche June 13, 1989 (1989-06-13) (age 22) 1 0 Academia Chişinău 5 DF Alexandru Epureanu (captain) September 27, 1986 (1986-09-27) (age 25) 40 3 Dynamo Moscow 6 DF Petru Racu July 17, 1987 (1987-07-17) (age 24) 9 0 Norrköping 13 DF Simeon Bulgaru May 26, 1985 (1985-05-26) (age 26) 4 0 Alania Vladikavkaz 7 MF Stanislav Ivanov November 7, 1980 (1980-11-07) (age 31) 38 0 Lokomotiv Moscow 8 MF Eugeniu Cebotaru October 16, 1984 (1984-10-16) (age 27) 26 0 Ceahlăul 9 MF Anatolii Cheptine May 20, 1990 (1990-05-20) (age 21) 5 0 Sheriff Tiraspol 15 MF Artur Pătraş October 1, 1988 (1988-10-01) (age 23) 2 0 Politehnica Timişoara 16 MF Alexandr Suvorov February 2, 1987 (1987-02-02) (age 24) 30 4 Cracovia 17 MF Igor Ţîgîrlaş February 24, 1984 (1984-02-24) (age 27) 20 1 Chornomorets Odesa 18 MF Denis Zmeu May 8, 1985 (1985-05-08) (age 26) 16 0 Vaslui 10 FW Serghei Alexeev May 31, 1986 (1986-05-31) (age 25) 15 4 Kaposvári Rákóczi 11 FW Igor Bugaiov June 26, 1984 (1984-06-26) (age 27) 37 6 Lokomotiv Astana 14 FW Gheorghe Ovseannicov October 12, 1985 (1985-10-12) (age 26) 13 2 Olimpia Bălţi

Recent callups

The following players have also been called up to the Moldova squad recently.

Pos. Player Date of Birth (Age) Caps Goals Club Latest Call-up GK Nicolae Calancea August 29, 1986 (1986-08-29) (age 25) 12 0 Zimbru Chişinău v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 GK Yevgeni Matyugin October 31, 1981 (1981-10-31) (age 30) 3 0 Dacia Chişinău v.  Cyprus, 10 August 2011 DF Vadim Boreț September 5, 1976 (1976-09-05) (age 35) 40 1 Baku v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 DF Alexei Savinov April 19, 1979 (1979-04-19) (age 32) 37 0 Baku v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 DF Vitalie Bordian August 11, 1984 (1984-08-11) (age 27) 23 1 Metalist Kharkiv v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 DF Vadim Bolohan August 15, 1986 (1986-08-15) (age 25) 10 0 Sevastopol v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 DF Iulian Erhan July 1, 1986 (1986-07-01) (age 25) 1 0 Zimbru Chişinău v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 MF Anatolie Doroş March 21, 1983 (1983-03-21) (age 28) 17 2 Irtysh Pavlodar v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 MF Eugen Sidorenco March 19, 1989 (1989-03-19) (age 22) 2 0 Zimbru Chişinău v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 MF Serghei Gheorghiev October 20, 1991 (1991-10-20) (age 20) 1 0 Sheriff Tiraspol v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 MF Nicolae Josan September 18, 1983 (1983-09-18) (age 28) 11 1 Anzhi Makhachkala v.  San Marino, 12 October 2010 FW Viorel Frunză December 6, 1979 (1979-12-06) (age 31) 31 6 Shakhter Karagandy v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011 FW Alexandru Dedov July 26, 1989 (1989-07-26) (age 22) 0 0 Dacia Chişinău v.  Hungary, 6 September 2011

Player history

Players in bold are still active.

Most capped players

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Radu Rebeja	1991–2008	74	2
2	Serghei Cleşcenco	1991–2006	69	11
3	Valeriu Catinsus	1999–2009	55	0
4	Ion Testemiţanu	1991–2007	53	5
5	Serghei Rogaciov	1996–2007	52	9
6	Serghei Epureanu	1996–2006	46	3
=	Serghei Stroenco	1992–2007	46	0
8	Vladimir Gaidamaşchuc	1992–2001	44	1
=	Igor Oprea	1992–2001	44	4
10	Ghenadie Olexici	2001–2007	42	0

Top goalscorers

#	Name	Career	Goals (caps)
1	Serghei Cleşcenco	1991–2006	11 (69)
2	Serghei Rogaciov	1996–2007	9 (52)
3	Iurie Miterev	1992–2006	8 (36)
4	Serghei Dadu	2002–	7 (27)
5	Viorel Frunză	2002–2008	6 (26)
6	Igor Bugaiov	2007–	5 (26)
=	Ion Testemiţanu	1991–2007	5 (53)
8	Alexandru Golban	2002–	4 (15)
=	Valeriu Andronic	2001–	4 (25)
=	Igor Oprea	1992–2001	4 (44)

Managers

Period	Coach
1991–1992	Ion Caras Denis Ersov
1992	Eugen Piunovschi
1992–1997	Ion Caras
1998–1999	Ivan Danilianţ
1999–2001	Alexandru Maţiura
2001	Alexandru Spiridon
2002–2006	Viktor Pasulko
2006–2007	Anatol Teslev
2007–2009	Igor Dobrovolski
2010–Present	Gavril Balint

See also

• Moldova national football team matches
• Category:Moldovan footballers
• Category:Moldova international footballers
• Category:Moldovan football biography stubs

References

External links

• Football Association of Moldova (Romanian)
• RSSSF archive of results: 1991–present
• www.football.md (Russian)