Two Baltic rivals meet in Riga on Wednesday evening as Latvia host Estonia in the Baltic Cup at the Daugavas Stadiona.
Unsurprisingly, neither of these two sides managed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar and will be using this match as preparation for the Euro 2024 qualification campaign which commences in March next year.
Match preview
© Reuters
As the 134th-placed nation in the FIFA World Rankings, Latvia is one of the nations that has benefitted massively from UEFA's introduction of the Nations League, allowing smaller countries to play competitive games against teams of a similar quality rather than merely being the whipping boys of qualification groups for major tournaments.
Despite going without a win in their final two Nations League matches, Dainis Kazakevics's men managed to top their group in League D and earn promotion to the third tier of the competition for its next installment, where they could face teams such as Sweden and Albania.
Combine Latvia's Nations League success with the fact that their Euro qualifying group has Croatia and Wales as the highest-ranked teams, supporters may be starting to wonder if their team could achieve the improbable and win a place at the Euros for the first time since 2004.
Latvia's first international match came against Wednesday's opponents in 1922, meaning this week's fixture marks a century of football for the 11 Wolves, a landmark they would love to celebrate with a victory over their nearest neighbours.
© Reuters
Like their Baltic rivals, Estonia had a successful Nations League campaign, finishing top of a group including Malta and San Marino with a 100% record to earn the right to play in League C during the 2024-25 edition of the competition.
Ex-Dundee United and Hibernian forward Henri Anier was Estonia's top goalscorer during their promotion campaign with four goals, a tally only Latvian striker Vladislavs Gutkovskis could better across the two groups of League D.
Estonia have won the Baltic Cup four times compared to Latvia's 16, but Thomas Haberli has the team to shorten that gap in honours this week, although a potential final against invitational participants Iceland on Saturday could be a very challenging assignment.
Estonia's success in the 2020 edition of the Baltic Cup was their first since 1938 when they topped a two-game group stage against Latvia and Lithuania, with this year's competition presenting the opportunity to win the tournament back-to-back for the first time in the country's history.
Team News
Latvia will be without talisman Gutkovskis for the entirety of their Baltic Cup campaign due to injury, a massive blow for a team who were reliant on his goals and presence during the 2022-23 Nations League.
That absence places the attacking burden onto 21-year-old Raimonds Krollis, who scored an impressive 25 times in Latvia's top flight for Valmiera FC in the 2022 season, nine more strikes than any other player in the division.
Veteran central defender Joonas Tamm has failed to make the Estonia squad despite a solid start to the season with Romanian side FCSB, with the 30-year-old reportedly injured ahead of this international break.
Estonia will not be lacking an older head in the squad however, as 38-year-old Konstantin Vassiljev has been selected and is set to add to his 140 appearances for his nation, with the midfielder first stepping onto the pitch for the Baltic country way back in 2004.
Latvia possible starting lineup:
Steinbors; Savalnieks, Cernomordijs, Stuglis, Jurkovskis; Ikaunieks, Emsis, Tobers, Ciganiks; Ikaunieks, Krollis
Estonia possible starting lineup:
Hein; Purg, Baranov, Mets; Teniste, Vassiljev, Soomets, Vastsuk, Ojamaa; Sappinen, Anier
We say: Latvia 1-2 Estonia
Both sides are coming into the Baltic Cup following promotions in the Nations League meaning both should be confident in winning this competition despite the involvement of Iceland.
Even though Latvia have home advantage in this tournament, the unavailability of Gutkovskis could really hinder their efforts to win their 17th Baltic Cup title, so we see the Estonians advancing to the final on Saturday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
