Moldova Women

A team that stops playing tends to fade quietly, but Moldova's women left a specific mark on their way out: in their final World Cup qualifying campaign, in 2007, their only win came 3-1 against Estonia, a repeat of the pattern from four years earlier, when their sole victory in the 2003 qualifiers was 2-1 against Greece. One win in each campaign, last place in the group both times — and then nothing. After that 2007 qualification cycle, the senior side stopped competing altogether, leaving Under-19 and Under-17 sides to carry Moldova's colours in European competition instead.

The team's best moment by the numbers came earlier, in July 2003, when it reached 85th in the FIFA world rankings; by December 2011, with no matches to defend the position, it had slipped to 136th. No honours sit in the record.

The Aquilas, as the side is known, have played home fixtures at two very different venues: the compact Stadionul CPSM in Vadul lui Vodă, which opened in 2002 and holds 1,220 people, and the much larger Zimbru Stadium in Chișinău, with room for roughly 10,400, used for the fixtures that called for it.

Carolina Țabur stands out among the current squad as the side's top scorer, with 6 goals from 52 caps, while Natalia Munteanu wears the captain's armband as goalkeeper with 43 caps to her name. Ghenadie Pușca took over as head coach on 1 March 2024, inheriting a programme still built around World Cup qualifying, the Nations League and Euro qualification rather than a settled group of rivals — Moldova's sharpest competitive edge to date was reserved for Greece and Estonia, the two sides they managed to beat when it mattered most.