Wales v Latvia Preview: Stats & Stuff

Robert Page’s  Wales face Latvia in Cardiff tonight. Here are some facts about the little-known Latvians.

• This is only the second ever meeting between Wales and Latvia, with the other coming in August 2004 in a friendly in Riga, a 2-0 Welsh win with goals from John Hartson and Craig Bellamy.
• Including play-offs Wales have lost one of their last 21 home games in major tournament qualifiers (W13 D7), a 1-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland in a World Cup qualifier in October 2017.
• Wales have lost two of their last three home matches (D1), having lost none of their previous 19 before this. Wales haven’t lost consecutive home games since October/ November 2018.
• Latvia have won just one of their last 21 European Championship qualifying matches (D5 L15), which came in their most recent such match in November 2019 vs Austria.
• Their last away Euros qualifying win was back in September 2011 against Georgia (D4 L7 since).
• Wales are winless in their last nine competitive matches (D3 L6), last having a longer run between August 2003 and September 2005 (14 games). They’ve also conceded the first goal in each of these nine games, since beating Ukraine 1-0 in June 2022.
• Latvia have only won their first European Championship qualifier in one of their previous seven campaigns (D2 L4), beating Norway 3-1 away from home back in September 1998.
• Five of Wales’ last seven goals in all competitions have come in the final 10 minutes of matches, with Nathan Broadhead equalising in stoppage time against Croatia last time out with their only shot on target of the match.
• Of the 46 nations to play a European Championship qualifier between March 23rd and 25th, no side had fewer shots on target than Wales (1), while only San Marino (3), Andorra (3), Liechtenstein (2) and Gibraltar (1) had fewer overall shots (4)