Austria vs Turkey: Preview and Prediction

Austria host Turkey in one of the low profile friendlies on 29th March 2016, but the match surely offers an exciting and fierce contest.

Both teams are on good form and were victorious on their last warm-up match, where Turkey beat Sweden by 2-1, courtesy of a double by Tosun. While Austria see-off Albania by a similar scoreline with Marc Janko and Martin Harnik finding the back of the net within the first 15 minutes of the game.

There is much to look for in this friendly as the clashes between the sides rarely end in a draw.

Form Guide

• Austria have 7 wins in their last 9 matches, with just 1 defeat and a draw.
• Das Team have scored at least a goal in their last 8 matches and their last 5 matches produced over 2.5 goals.
• Turkey are on a 12 match unbeaten, with 9 wins and 2 draws.
• Fatih Terim managed side are on a 4 match winning streak away from home and are 6 match-unbeaten since late 2014.

Turkey: Team News

Fatih Terim will be without their star striker Burak Yilmaz, which leaves them with Cenk Tosun as the only genuine striker and he is expected to start here.

Barclona ace and Turkey Captain Arda Turan is currently the highest capped player in the squad and is expected to retain his place in the starting eleven.

The team constitutes a number of players from the Turkish Super Lig. Nuri Sahin (Dortmund), Turan (Barcelona), Yunus Mali (Mainz) and Hakan Çalhanoğlu (Leverkusen) are the only players who play their trade in outside Turkey.

Turkey: Expected Starting Line-up (4-2-3-1)

Babacan – Erkin, Balta, Topal, Gonul – Inan, Tufan – Arda Turan, Ozyakup, Sen – Tosun.

Austria: Team News

Austria head-coach Marcel Koller is unlikely to make any changes to the starting line-up that helped them win against Albania.

Stoke City attacker Marko Arnautovic, Bayern Munich star David Alaba and Leicester City left-back Christian Fuchs are set to start here.

Austria: Expected Starting Line-up (4-2-3-1)

Almer – Fuchs, Hinteregger, Dragovic, Klein – Alaba, Baumgartlinger – Arnautovic, Junuzovic, Harnik – Janko.

Austria vs Turkey: Head-to-Head Stats

• The teams have played 12 matches between themselves, Austria won in 5, while Turkey won 6 and 1 match ended in a draw.
• The last meetings between the two sides was on August 2012, Austria won it 2-0 in front of their home crowd.
• The teams shared a win each from their last three matches, while one match was a 0-0 draw.
• Turkey haven’t scored a goal against Austria in their last two meetings, while the Austrians can boast of a 2 match winning run over the Turks.

Austria vs Turkey: Prediction

It is hard to separate the two teams on paper and both are on strong form. The two managers on opposite end will take this opportunity to experiment, but none of them will want to lose this tie.

Turkey might go into this match with a slight advantage, but can’t back them to win with full confidence. In the past we have seen that the clashes between these two teams can go either way regardless of the venue, so this is a very risky match to bet on.