Moldova

The Moldova national football team (Romanian: Echipa națională de fotbal a Moldovei) represents Moldova in association football and is controlled by the Moldovan Football Federation, the governing body for football in Moldova. Moldova's home ground is Zimbru Stadium in Chișinău and their head coach is Igor Dobrovolski. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Georgia on 2 July 1991. Two of their three best results in the 1990s years, came during the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 1996, with wins over Georgia (1–0) in Tbilisi and Wales (3–2) in Chișinău. In 2007, Moldova obtained a very good result, defeating Hungary 3–0 in Chișinău in Euro 2008 qualifying. Their best recent result was a 5–2 win over Montenegro during 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying. The team has never qualified for the final stages of the UEFA European Championship nor the FIFA World Cup as of present time. Following Moldova's 4–0 defeat to England in September 1997, 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 Chișinău in May and June 2010 and was released in the spring of 2012.