07.09.2012 Latvia vs Greece Match Preview

LATVIA

Latvia and Greece hast met in Euro 2012 qualifications too and Latvia got a draw against Greece in home. Latvia got 3 wins 2 draws in group matches and they were 4th position in qualification groups. Latvia made a few friendly matches in 2012. Players performance was just average in friendlies. They just played good against their neighbour Lithuania and they scored 5 goals in that match. Lithuania’s performance is already dropping day by day. We couldn’t already see more then two goals in Latvia’s friendly matches.

Latvia players and Squad
Latvia National Football Team players are not generally playing in quality teams. Some of them are from Russian second league and from Azerbaijani League. Artem Rudnev is the most valuable player in Latvia National Team. He is playing for Hamburg at the moment. Left Winger Cauana is also another important player for Latvia he scored several goals for Latvia National Football Team in 2010-2012.

Latvia Squad:
Andris Vaņins (FC Sion)
Oskars Kļava (AZAL PFK BAKU)
Ritus Krjauklis (Golden Arrows)
Deniss Ivanovs (FK Baku)
Kaspars Gorkšs (Reading)
Aleksandrs Cauņa (CSKA Moscow)
Aleksejs Višņakovs (Baltika Kaliningrad)
Ivans Lukjanovs (Metalurh Zaporizhya)
Oļegs Laizāns (Yenisey Krasnoyarsk)
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk (Hamburg)
Māris Verpakovskis (FK Baku)

GREECE

Greece could qualify last World Cup in 2010 after 16 years later. They also won Euro Cup in 2004. That was surprising result for everyone. In 2012 Euro Cup Qualifications Greece didn’t even lose one single match and qualified to Euro 2012 Finals. They even played quarter final match against Germany and lost… Greece and Latvia were in same group in Euro 2012 and Greece won to match in home (1-0) and they couldn’t able to beat Latvia in away match. (1-1) Last month Greece made a friendly against Norway in Oslo and they won to match. (3-2) Players performances were good in the match and Greece Manager tried many footballers in that match.

Greece players and Squad
Greece main problem is goalkeeper at the moment. Alexandros Tzorvas will keep the Greece goal in this match but he didn’t even play matchclub base  for a few years. The most valuable player of Greece is 24 years old Sokratis Papastathopoulos at the moment. I think you should know about his young years if you ever played CM or FM. He was quite quality defender in the game and he is in real life too… He is playing for Werder Bremen and he capped 32 times for Greece. Another important player for Greece is offensive midfielder Sotiris Ninis. He recently moved to Parma. He is young and promising footballer. I believe his performance will be good in Parma incoming matches.

Greece Squad:
Alexandros Tzorvas (Genoa)
Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen)
Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke 04)
Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos)
Vasilis Torosidis (olympiacos)
Kostas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos)
Sotiris Ninis (Parma)
Lazaros Christodoulopoulos (Panathinaikos)
Giannis Maniatis (Olympiacos)
Theofanis Gekas (Getafe)
Giorgos Samaras (Celtic)

Last 5 Home Matches of Latvia
Latvia 0-3 Croatia
Latvia 1-1 Georgia
Latvia 1-2 Israel
Latvia 1-1 Greece
Latvia 2-0 Malta

Last 5 Away Matches of Greece

Malta    0-1 Greece
Israel   0-1   Greece
Latvia   1-1   Greece
Georgia  1-2   Greece
Poland   1-1    Greece

Match Prediction
Less then 3 goals.

Latvia vs Malta