Tonight at 21:45 Baltic time, the Latvian national team will play their second World Cup 2026 qualifying match in London against England. The match will take place at Wembley Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 90000, and it is expected to be the most-attended game in the Latvian national team’s history.
This will be the first meeting between these two nations. Historically, the Latvian national team has a record of 1 win, 4 draws, and 9 losses when playing their first-ever meeting with a nation in the World Cup qualifying, with the only victory coming against San Marino in November 2000.
In their last match, Paolo Nicolato’s team defeated Andorra 1-0 in a challenging game. Substitute Dario Šits scored his second goal for the national team, while goalkeeper Krišjānis Zviedris, making his debut, kept a clean sheet. A tougher challenge awaits, and Nicolato is aware of the hurdles ahead.
“We know we’re up against one of the best teams, but football is unpredictable. We’re not just here to play; we want to prove ourselves,” Nicolato stated at the pre-match press conference. “We’re not focusing too much on who we’re playing against right now. We are at the beginning of our journey, and we have to concentrate on ourselves.”
Defender Roberts Savaļnieks expressed his excitement at yesterday’s official press conference, saying, “The feeling is wonderful. We have come to a real football home. We’ve never had such an experience before. As a team, we are very happy to be here. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s game and want to showcase our best football while enjoying the atmosphere.” He also noted that it is his first time inside Wembley.
On Friday, the English national team, in front of a crowd of over 82,000 people during Thomas Tuchel’s opening game as manager, defeated Albania 2-0. Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly became the youngest player ever to score on his debut for the Three Lions at the age of 18, while the second goal was scored by Harry Kane from Bayern Munich.
In yesterday’s press conference, Thomas Tuchel acknowledged that England is the favorite in the game against Latvia but recognized the unpredictability of Latvia’s style of play. “I think we are clear favorites in this game, but it will be challenging to predict exactly how Latvia will perform,” he stated. “We are analyzing videos of Latvia’s games against Andorra, North Macedonia, and the Faroe Islands. We will be offering opponents from a different level for Latvia. We need to mentally prepare for this status.”
England is currently ranked 4th in the FIFA Rankings. The last time the Latvian national team faced a top-10-ranked team was against Croatia in 2023. However, to find a nation that was in the top 5 when Latvia faced them, we must look back to November 2014, when they played against the Netherlands in the EURO 2016 qualifiers, suffering a 0-6 defeat. At that time, the Netherlands was ranked 5th.
Latvia national team squad for the upcoming games:
Goalkeepers
Roberts Ozols – FK Auda 18/0
Rihards Matrevics – FK Auda 12/0
Krišjānis Zviedris – Riga FC 1/0
Defenders
Roberts Savaļnieks – FC RFS 66/2
Andrejs Cigaņiks – Luzern FC (SWI) 60/4
Raivis Andris Jurkovskis – Riga FC 50/0
Alvis Jaunzems – Stal Mielec (POL) 42/0
Antonijs Černomordijs – Riga FC 39/1
Vitālijs Jagodinskis – Visakha FC (CAM) 34/0
Daniels Balodis – St Johnstone FC (SCO) 16/1
Vjačeslavs Isajevs – FK Liepāja 7/0
Maksims Toņiševs – Riga FC 3/0
Emīls Birka – FK Auda 1/0
Niks Sliede – FC RFS 0/0
Midfielders
Aleksejs Saveļjevs – Gloria Bužau (ROM) 26/1
Renārs Varslavāns – FK Auda 14/1
Dmitrijs Zelenkovs – FC RFS 13/0
Lūkass Vapne – Sogndal IL (NOR) 8/0
Deniss Meļņiks – FK Auda 4/0
Forwards
Jānis Ikaunieks – FC RFS 64/12
Vladislavs Gutkovskis – Daejeon Hana Citizen (KOR) 51/11
Raimonds Krollis – Slovan Liberec (CZE) 40/4
Eduards Dašķevičs – Riga FC 16/0
Dario Šits – Helmond Sport (NED) 4/2
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