Turkey vs North Macedonia Prediction: Hosts can put on a show in the final third

Turkey's FIFA World Cup preparations continue with a friendly against North Macedonia on Monday (8:30pm local/6:30pm BST) in Istanbul, the first of two fixtures before their adventure across the Atlantic.

The Crescent-Stars look in decent shape ahead of the tournament so this next week will be all about adding the finishing touches. Read on for my Turkey vs North Macedonia predictions, supported by the latest match odds from Betfred and team news.

Team News

Juventus attacker Kenan Yildiz won't be available this clash as he continues to recover from a muscle injury. Hakan Calhanoglu is going to be another big miss for the hosts because of a similar issue.

This should see Salih Ozcan join Ismail Yuksek in a double pivot.

Defender Ahmetcan Kaplan is also sidelined.

Football Odds

Eljif Elmas and Bojan Miovski look set to support striker Elmin Rastoder for North Macedonia because of Daniel Musovski's injury.

Turkey vs North Macedonia Odds

Turkey are the heavy favourites to win this game at 1/4, whereas North Macedonia are a 10/1 bet to come away with the victory.

The stalemate can be backed at 4/1.

Turkey have recorded clean sheets in three of their previous four fixtures and they are 4/6 to shut out their opponents on Monday.

Home Team Total Goals - Over 2.5 @ 11/10

This is a big week for Turkey. They have two friendlies to handle before going straight into the action at the World Cup. They have built up some good momentum in the past six months and I think this can continue against North Macedonia.

Although the Crescent-Stars have some key players missing, I think they still boast a lot of attacking quality and I believe we will see this firsthand on Monday. I'm backing the hosts to score at least three goals, which they have managed in three of their last eight fixtures.

Additionally, North Macedonia have conceded a total of 11 goals across their two most recent defeats against Wales and Denmark.

Both Teams To Score - No @ 8/13

Turkey have won three of their past four matches to nil, and so this makes BTTS - No an attractive bet for Monday's clash. They have kept successive clean sheets heading into this clash with North Macedonia.

The visitors have seen this selection strike in each of their previous three fixtures and they have failed to score in all of them. I'm expecting both trends to continue here.

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