Football

Latvia vs Wales predicted lineups: Win or bust for the visitors?

September 10, 2023 6:45 pm

Wales travel to Riga to play Latvia on Monday looking for a victory as they bid to stay in the hunt for qualification from Group D in Euro 2024 qualifying. The game kicks off at 21:45 local time at the Skonto Stadium which is 19:45 in the UK.

Latvia vs Wales predicted lineups and news

Latvia are bottom of this group and without a point from their four games so it’s safe to assume they will not be competing for a top two finish in this group. They still have an outside chance of qualifying for Euro 2024 via the play-offs as the second best ranked team in League D from the UEFA Nations League. Manager Dainis Kazakevics will be hoping for at least a morale boosting performance here after the 5-0 hammering they received in Croatia on Friday night.

This is a much bigger game for Wales though. Rob Page’s side will be disappointed with their tally of just 4 points at the midway stage in the group. 3 of those points came courtesy of a 1-0 win in the reverse fixture against the Latvians on matchday 2 and another victory over the Baltic side is surely a necessity if Wales are to compete with the likes of Croatia and Turkey for a qualifying spot.

Team news: Latvia

Latvia have lost all five matches that they’ve played in 2023 so confidence will not be high in the home camp. However, aside from the Croatia defeat, all of those losses were by a single goal margin so this is by no means going to be a walk in the park for the Welsh.

The hosts are hampered by the injury absence of striker Vladislavs Gutkovskis. The 28 year old scored 5 goals in the 2023/24 Nations League and will be a big miss that limits the options for Kazakevics in attack heading into this one. Roberts Uldrikis was the lone striker in Rijeka on Friday night and will be hoping for a bit more service in this game.

Arturs Zjuzins, Pavels Steinbors and Raivis Jurkovskis are other notable absentees from this squad.

Latvia predicted lineup

Purins, Sorokins, Cernomordijs, Dubra, Savalnieks, Ciganiks, Emsis, Tobers, Ikaunieks, Jaunzems, Uldrikis

Team news: Wales

Wales warmed up for this match with a relatively encouraging performance in the 0-0 friendly draw against South Korea on Thursday. They created the better chances against the Asian side with some positives including a lively first start from Ipswich Town’s in-form Nathan Broadhead while Jordan James did well in midfield.

This is a Wales squad that is in transition after the likes of Gareth Bale, Joe Allen and Chris Gunter retired following the World Cup. There is no Daniel James in this squad either while Wes Burns and Wayne Hennessey have been forced to withdraw through injury.

Rob Page will be looking to captain Aaron Ramsey and recent Spurs signing Brennan Johnson to be the driving forces as Wales target what would be a priceless three points in a campaign that started brightly, but badly tailed off in June with damaging defeats against Armenia and Turkey.

Wales predicted lineup

Ward, Rodon, Mepham, Davies, Williams, Ramsey, Ampadu, Roberts, Wilson, Moore, Johnson

Will Player Kieffer Moore play?

Kieffer Moore
Photo by Mike Jones/News Images/Sipa USA) – Photo by Icon sport

Rob Page will have a pretty clear idea of his eleven for this match and he limited the involvement of a number of key players to 45 minutes or less in the friendly against South Korea. The one big decision perhaps revolves around who starts in attack.

Tottenham’s £47.5m man Brennan Johnson will surely play but Page must decide whether to utilise the aerial prowess of Kieffer Moore who made a big difference when he came on in the friendly against South Korea, hitting the post with a header. It looks likely that Moore will start this game, although another option for Page would be to use Johnson through the middle and potentially reward Broadhead with a first competitive start on the left flank.

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