Latvia national football team

The Latvia national football team (Latvijas futbola izlase) represents Latvia in men's international football, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Latvia. They have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, but did qualify for the European Championship in 2004 under head coach Aleksandrs Starkovs.

Latvia, alongside their Baltic rivals, Lithuania and Estonia, have also participated in the local sub-regional Baltic Cup tournament, which takes place every two years. Latvia has won the Baltic Cup championship a record 13 times, more than any other country in the history of the tournament, most recently in 2018.

Latvia's current home ground is the Daugava Stadium in Riga, although since the autumn of 2022 most games have been held at Skonto Stadium.

Early years
Latvia played their first match in 1922, a game against Estonia, which finished in a 1–1 draw. Latvia have won the Baltic Cup 12 times, and played 99 official games during its pre-war period from 1922 to 1940.

In 1937, the Latvian team participated in the first qualification tournament for the 1938 World Cup. Latvia were placed in Group 8, alongside Austria and Lithuania. Latvia beat Lithuania 4–2 in Riga, after a Fricis Kaņeps hat-trick and an Iļja Vestermans goal. In Kaunas, they won 5–1, after two goals each from Kaņeps, Vaclavs Borduško, and Vestermans, but lost 1–2 in the decisive away match against Austria, despite an early goal from Vestermans. In April 1938, the Austrian Anschluss made the Austrian team unable to participate, however, despite being the group's runner-up, Latvia was not invited to the tournament by FIFA to replace Austria.

In 1940, Latvia was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union; the country regained its independence in 1991 and played their first match against Estonia on 16 November of that year in the Baltic Cup, and their first FIFA-recognized match against Romania on 8 April 1992 in Bucharest, a match, which Latvia lost 2–0.

In September 2003, Latvia surprisingly finished second, ahead of Poland, in their qualifying group for Euro 2004. This meant they qualified for the play-offs, where they were drawn against Turkey. Latvia won the first leg 1–0, through top goalscorer, Māris Verpakovskis. The second leg finished in a 2–2 draw, with Latvia winning 3–2 on aggregate, thus qualifying for the tournament. This resulted in Latvia being the first and only Baltic team, as well as being the second former-Soviet state in Europe at the time (after Russia) to qualify for a European Championship. At Euro 2004, Latvia were drawn in Group D, alongside Germany, Czech Republic, and Netherlands. Latvia faced Czech Republic in their opening match on 15 June 2004, with Verpakovskis scoring before half-time. However, the Czechs would later come back to win the game 2–1. Four days later, Latvia earned a respectable 0–0 draw against Germany to earn their first point in a major tournament. They lost their final match with 3–0 against Netherlands, and were eliminated, finishing fourth, with one point from their draw and two losses.

Latvia have since failed to qualify for another major tournament, although they came close to qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. After eight qualifying matches, Latvia were level on points with their next opponent, second-placed Greece, but a 5–2 defeat virtually ended all hopes of qualification and Latvia finished third in UEFA Group 2. Recent years have seen a sharp decline with many losses. In the EURO 2020 qualifiers, Latvia lost 9 out of 10 games, including a woeful 0–5 home loss to Slovenia.

Kits
Latvia's kit is traditionally a carmine red jersey with white trim, carmine red shorts and socks, whilst their current away kit is all predominantly white. Latvia's kits have been produced by various manufacturers.

Crest
Until July 2018, the team crest consisted of the Latvian Football Federation logo, when it was switched to a shield with a football in the colors of the Latvian flag and 'LATVIJA' written above. A similar crest with a head of a howling wolf was also unveiled as a secondary logo for use in souvenirs etc. as part of the #11vilki (#11wolves) brand.

Media coverage
All Latvian matches are currently broadcast with full commentary on the Go3 web streaming service, owned by TV3 Group. Since the 1990s, LTV7 (initially LTV2) was the broadcaster of all of the team games, before the All Media Baltics conglomerate took over broadcasting rights in September 2018. Games were broadcast on the group's TV6 channel and the TVPlay and Viaplay streaming platforms. All Media Baltics later became TV3 Group.

From the 2022 season until the 2028 season, Latvia's home and away qualifiers, and friendlies both home and away were broadcast live exclusively by Swedish Viaplay Group on their web streaming service. On 20 July 2023, Viaplay announced that it will leave the market of the Baltic states. Upon exiting, all sports licences owned by Viasat - including the Baltic broadcasting rights for the Baltic Cup, UEFA Champions League, Premier League, Formula 1 and the NHL - were acquired by TV3 Group.

Stadium
In recent years, the home venue of the team has fluctuated between Skonto Stadium and the Daugava Stadium in Riga. Daugava was the main venue of the team from 1992 to 2000, when Skonto Stadium was unveiled as a temporary location due to the planned renovation of the Daugava. However, the renovation of the complex only began in 2017, with the first stage completed a year later.

The team then returned to the Daugava after an 18 year absence in the summer of 2018 with a game against Estonia on June 2nd. However, since mid-2022 home matches were once again temporarily moved to Skonto Stadium due to problems with the grass pitch and other issues. Works on replacing and upgrading the pitch began in October 2023. At the time, Latvian Football Federation president Vadims Ļašenko said that Skonto would become the main home of the men's team, with Daugava serving as a backup and the venue for the women's and youth national teams.

In the interwar era between 1921 and 1940, games were held in various locations such as the Army Sports Club Stadium in Riga and others.

Home venues record
The following table provides a summary of Latvia's results at home venues since 1992. .

Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

Coaching history

 * Technical Commission (1922–1923)
 * 🇱🇻 Juris Rēdlihs-Raiskums (1924)
 * 🇦🇹 Willy Malousek (1924)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Walter Wilson (1925)
 * 🇭🇺 Ferenc Molnár (1926)
 * 🇦🇹 Karl Kurz (1927)
 * 🇦🇹 Willy Malousek (1929)
 * 🇱🇻 Juris Rēdlihs-Raiskums (1930–1931)
 * 🇱🇻 Jānis Lapiņš (1932–1934)
 * 🇭🇺 Ferenc Voggenhuber (1935)
 * 🇦🇹 Rudolf Stanzel (1936–1939)
 * 🇱🇻 Kārlis Upenieks (1940)
 * 🇱🇻 Jānis Gilis (1992–1997)
 * Revaz Dzodzuashvili (1998–1999)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gary Johnson (1999–2001)
 * 🇱🇻 Aleksandrs Starkovs (2001–2004)
 * 🇱🇻 Jurijs Andrejevs (2004–2007)
 * 🇱🇻 Aleksandrs Starkovs (2007–2013)
 * 🇱🇻 Marians Pahars (2013–2017)
 * 🇱🇻 Aleksandrs Starkovs (2017–2018)
 * 🇫🇮 Mixu Paatelainen (2018)
 * 🇸🇮 Slaviša Stojanovič (2019–2020)
 * 🇱🇻 Dainis Kazakevičs (2020–2023)
 * 🇮🇹 Paolo Nicolato (2024–present)

Current squad
The following players were called up for the friendly matches against Cyprus and Liechtenstein on 21 and 26 March 2024, respectively.

Caps and goals as of 26 March 2024, after the match against Liechtenstein.

Recent call-ups
The following players have been called up within the last twelve months.

RET Retired from national team INJ Injured player WD Withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue
 * }

Player records

 * Players in bold are still active with Latvia.

Hat-tricks

 * 4 Player scored 4 goals

Head-to-head record
As of 21 November 2023 after match against 🇵🇱 poland.


 * *Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Honours

 * King's Cup
 * Winners (1): 2005
 * Baltic Cup
 * Winners (13)
 * Runners-up (14)
 * Third place (2)