Latvia’s European Championship dream took a heavy hit on the scoreboard, but not, according to the players, on the court. After a 0-5 loss to the group favourites France national futsal team at Arēna Rīga, Latvian futsal international Renards Ūdris spoke to Baltic Football News about missed opportunities, tough lessons, and belief heading into a decisive final group match.
Despite the final result, Latvia held France scoreless for the entire first half and created several clear chances of their own – an effort that Ūdris feels was not reflected by the margin of defeat.
“There’s definitely a bitter feeling after a game like this,” Ūdris admitted. “But honestly, the performance wasn’t bad. A 0-5 scoreline doesn’t tell the full story. The first half, especially, was very good from us. Now the focus has to be on Wednesday against Croatia – we need to win that match.”
Ūdris, the second-youngest player in Latvia’s squad at this championship, came agonisingly close to scoring his first-ever goal at a European Championship. One of those moments arrived in the first half, when Latvia could have taken a shock lead.
“I was already moving backwards when the pass came,” he explained. “Andrejs [Baklanovs] found me perfectly with a diagonal ball, but because I was stepping back, I couldn’t really strike it properly. I just managed to get a foot on it. Sometimes that’s how it goes – no luck.”
Latvia entered the match as clear underdogs, yet created multiple high-quality chances before halftime. Asked whether failing to capitalise affected the team mentally during the break, Ūdris said the mood in the dressing room remained calm and positive.
“In the locker room everyone was saying that things were okay,” he said. “We felt we were in the game. Yes, we conceded early in the second half, but the idea was still to wait for our moments, like in the first half. Unfortunately, they didn’t come as often after that.”
Head coach Massimiliano Bellarte turned to a power-play setup midway through the second half. During that phase, Latvia again came close – this time through Ūdris at the far post.
“Miks Babris played the ball across, and that was another moment we needed to use,” Ūdris said. “I didn’t expect that solution. There was a player in front of me, and I should have read Mika’s intention better and attacked the far post. I didn’t react in time. That’s on me.”
France eventually punished the risk-taking, scoring late goals to turn a competitive contest into a lopsided result.
With everything now riding on the final group match against Croatia national futsal team, Ūdris believes Latvia still have clear positives to take from the France match.
“Without doubt, the first half,” he said. “Defensively, we held up well, even though France had chances. And offensively, we created moments where we could have scored. Even with the power play in the second half, we had several good situations – we just didn’t finish them.”
