by Latvia and Malta will clash heads for the first time in six years this afternoon, as they open the fixtures in Group C1 of the UEFA Women’s Nations League. The preview looks at the recent form of the two and their head-to-head going into the match.
Recent Form
The Latvian team come into the fixture having tested themselves against a number of opponents of similar ranking to Malta. They held Azerbaijan (ranked 79th) to 1-1 draws in two separate friendly encounters last July. Karlina Miksone scored both goals for the Latvians. On the other hand, the team lost by 2-1 to Lithuania in April in a third-place play-off match of a preparatory tournament held in Bulgaria. There they competed against the host country Bulgaria (ranked 90th), as well as Lithuania (94th) and Kosovo (102nd). The team lost by 1-0 to Kosovo, however were without Latvian footballer of the year Olga Sevcova due to injury.
Meanwhile, Malta’s most recent friendly was played in July against Haiti (then ranked 55th), in which the Haitians emerged victorious by 5-0. On the other hand, the Maltese team emerged victorious in friendlies scheduled against similarly ranked nations of Estonia (98th) and Luxembourg (117th).
Head To Head
This will be the seventh meet between the two nations, with the last encounter having been in 2017. Malta leads the head-to-head 4-1, with one game being drawn. Although history is on the Maltese side, Latvia started to tilt the balance in their favour with time. The match will offer an interesting checkpoint as to how the two nations have progressed since then.
During the last encounter the two nations were both ranked 96th in the world. Since then, Malta has made up ten places, while Latvia has receded to 119. However, the two are ultimately separated by around a hundred points. The two teams have been building toward improving their standings and both will go into the UEFA Women’s Nations League with the determination of getting the best possible results.
The match kicks-off at Jūrmalas Pilsētas “Sloka” Stadium at 15:30. The other encounter in Group C1 will be between Moldova and Andorra, which will kick-off at 17:00.
Lead Image: UEFA / Latvia FA / Malta FA
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