Turkey – Bulgaria: will Turkey secure second place in this match?
In the fifth round of World Cup qualifying, Turkey face Bulgaria. The match will be played on Saturday, 15 November, kicking off at 18:00 CET, and I’m offering a betting pick for this fixture.
Turkey – Bulgaria: match preview
Turkey opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 3–2 win over Georgia. They were then routed 0–6 by Spain, but bounced back with two straight victories — a commanding 6–1 win over Bulgaria and another success against Georgia, this time 4–1. With nine points from four games, Turkey sit second in the group. They trail Spain by three points with another head-to-head still to play, though the goal difference strongly favours La Roja: Turkey’s stands at 13–10, while the Spanish boast an immaculate 15–0.
Bulgaria have yet to collect a single point in this qualifying cycle for the 2026 World Cup. They have fallen 0–3 and 0–4 to Spain, lost 0–3 to Georgia, and were hammered 1–6 by Turkey. After four rounds they are bottom of the table with zero points and a goal difference of 1–16. With two games remaining, they sit nine points off second place.
Match facts and H2H
- Turkey have won their last two matches and three of their previous four.
- Bulgaria are winless in nine straight outings and have lost their last five.
- In each of their last five games, Bulgaria have conceded at least three goals.
- Turkey and Bulgaria have faced each other four times: the Bulgarians have one win, Turkey have four.
Projected lineups
- Turkey: Cakir; Muldur, Demiral, Bardakci, Akaydin; Calhanoglu, Yuksek; Yilmaz, Guler, Yildiz; Akturkoglu
- Bulgaria: Mitov; Popov, Chernev, Bozhinov, Georgiev; Shopov, Krastev, Gruev; Petkov, Despodov, Minchev
Prediction
Turkey need to win this match to solidify their grip on second place and keep their hopes of challenging for top spot alive. My recommendation is to back Turkey’s individual total over 2.5.
