The leaders of Group D in the European qualifiers, Turkey and Armenia, will face each other in Eskisehir. The hosts have nine points, while the visitors have six and a game in hand. However, Croatia remains the favorite for the top spot in the group, with six more matches to play.
These two teams already played each other in the group, with Turkey winning 2-1 in their visit to Yerevan on March 25. The match was evenly matched, and a draw would not have been undeserved.
In the following qualifiers, Turkey lost 0-2 to Croatia at home but brought home six points from Latvia and Wales. Their win in Riga came in the 95th minute, after Latvia had equalized seconds earlier. They also faced difficulties against "The Dragons," despite a 2-0 victory; they played with a man more for over a half, had two goals disallowed and had to rely on Çalhanoğlu's penalty.
Armenia may dream of Euro 2024, and they have three matches left against direct opponents to do so. However, they are a solid underdog in all of these games, as they were in Wales earlier this summer. Despite falling behind early in the game, they came back to win 4-2 at Cardiff Stadium. Days later, however, they were close to giving away points in a match against Latvia, but they managed to score a penalty in injury time to secure a 2-1 win.