Latvian national football team / European championships

Latvia
Latvija

European Championship record scorer:	Māris Verpakovskis (1)
European Championship record players:	13 players (3 each)
Rank:	33 (last)
Balance sheet
3 European Championship games 0 wins 1 draw 2 defeats 1: 5 goals
statistics
First European Championship game Latvia 1: 2 Czech Republic Aveiro ( PRT ); June 15, 2004
Biggest European Championship defeat Latvia 0: 3 Netherlands Braga ( PRT ); June 23, 2004
successes
European Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( first : 2004 )
Best results	Preliminary round ( 2004 )
Best results in the countries where the UEFA European Football Championships are held
(As of November 2019)

The article contains a detailed description of the Latvian national football team at European championships and their qualifications. Latvia was able to qualify for a European Championship finals once, making it the only country until 2015 that was able to qualify for a European Championship but never a World Cup. Latvia ranks last in the ranking. Until 1990, Latvia was part of the USSR, which participated in European championships from 1960 to 1988 and won the first title in 1960. Latvian players did not play a role in the EM squad of the USSR.

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Comments and special features
1996	England	not qualified			In the qualification of Portugal and Ireland failed, which also could not qualify.
2000	Netherlands and Belgium	not qualified			In the qualification of Norway and Slovenia failed.
2004	Portugal	Preliminary round	Czech Republic , Germany , Netherlands	-	After two defeats and a draw, eliminated as bottom of the group.
2008	Austria and Switzerland	not qualified			In qualifying at the eventual winners Spain and Sweden failed.
2012	Poland and Ukraine	not qualified			In the qualification to Greece and Croatia failed.
2016	France	not qualified			In qualifying at the Turkey , the Czech Republic and Iceland failed.
2021	Europe	not qualified			In the qualification to Poland and Austria failed.

EM 1992

Latvia regained its independence from the USSR on August 21, 1991, but the qualifications were already in the final stages. The team of the USSR, in which Latvians played no role before, started at the European Championship as the Commonwealth of Independent States .

EM 1996

For the European Championship 1996 in England, which was held for the first time with 16 teams, the Latvians wanted to qualify for the first time after the collapse of the Soviet Union . They had to play against Portugal , Ireland , Northern Ireland , Austria and Liechtenstein . On September 7, 1994, the Latvians played their first European Championship qualifier and lost to Ireland 3-0. After another home defeat against Portugal, they won their first competitive game in Liechtenstein. After three more defeats, they won 2-1 in Northern Ireland, which cost the Northern Irish second place in the group, against Austria and again Liechtenstein. But this was only enough for fifth place. Group winners were Portugal, the Irish had to play as the worst runners-up of the eight groups and against seventh-placed runners-up, the Netherlands, for the last place in the European Championship finals. The game was played on a neutral place in Liverpool and lost 2-0.

EM 2000

For the EM 2000 the Latvians had to play against Norway , Slovenia , Greece , Albania and Georgia in the qualification . They started qualifying with two wins, then lost 1-0 in Slovenia and only drew goalless against Albania and Greece. After a home defeat against Slovenia, they won 2-1 in Greece, which cost the Greeks second place, and after two more draws and a home defeat against Norway they finished fourth. Norway qualified as group winners, Slovenia in the playoffs of the group runners-up against the Ukraine . Both played no role in the final round.

EM 2004

Latvian postage stamp for EM 2004 with a game scene from the qualifying game against Sweden

Starting line-ups in the Latvians' first European Championship game

After failing to qualify for the European Football Championship in 2000 , the team completed the qualification phase as second in the group. Group opponents were Sweden , Poland , Hungary and San Marino . The direct qualification was missed by a 0-2 in the home game against Poland on the third last match day. With a home win against Hungary and a win in Sweden, which was already the group winner, on the last day of the match, however, the second place was secured. The Latvians had reached the playoffs of the group runners-up and met Turkey . After a 1-0 home game, a 2-2 win in the second leg in Turkey was enough to qualify for the European Championship finals for the first time.

In the preliminary round in Portugal the team met in a group of death in the Czech Republic , record European champions Germany and former European champion Netherlands . After a 2-1 defeat against the Czech Republic, in which Māris Verpakovskis scored the only ever European Championship goal for Latvia in stoppage time in the first half, they achieved a surprising goalless draw against Germany. They then lost 3-0 to the Netherlands and were eliminated from the bottom of the group.

→ Main article : 2004 European Football Championship / Latvia

EM 2008

In qualifying group F for the Euro 2008, Latvia met Spain , Sweden, Northern Ireland , Denmark , Iceland and Liechtenstein . The first two teams were qualified for the finals in Switzerland and Austria . Latvia could not build on the results of the previous qualification and after four wins and six defeats only finished 4th. Spain as group winners and Sweden as second qualified for the finals where they met again in the group stage and Spain for the second time Title won.

EM 2012

Four years later things didn't go any better. In a group with Greece , Croatia , Israel , Georgia and Malta again only the fourth place was taken. Only the games against Malta and Georgia were won. Greece qualified as group winners, Croatia in the group runners-up playoffs against Turkey.

EM 2016

In the qualification , Latvia met the Netherlands , Turkey , the Czech Republic , Iceland and Kazakhstan . The first two in the group and the third in the group qualified directly as the best third in the group.

The Latvians started with four draws and four defeats and could not qualify after these games. The Latvians played a special role on the last day of the match. With their home defeat against Kazakhstan, they dropped to last place, so the Turks, against whom they had drawn twice, were automatically qualified for the finals as the best third party in the group.

EM 2021

For the first pan-European European Championship finals, Latvia had not applied to host games. In the qualifying , had to take part in the final round, the organizers of games, there were the Latvians with Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Northern Macedonia to do and Israel. The Latvians lost the first seven games and had no chance to qualify directly for the finals before the last three games. Since they also had no win in their league in the 2018/19 UEFA Nations League and had only reached third place, they cannot qualify via the playoffs.

Player with the most appearances in European championships

Māris Verpakovskis , so far the only Latvian European Championship goalscorer

Games	player	Year (games)
3	13 players	2004 (3)
1	03 players	2004 (1)

As of July 1, 2012

Player with the most goals at European championships

Gates	player	Year (goals)
1	Māris Verpakovskis	2004 (1)

As of July 1, 2012

Players banned from European championships

No Latvian player has been suspended so far.

Share of players playing abroad in the EM squad

Legionnaires made up the majority in the only squad so far.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
2004 (3)	12 (1 in Belgium, 1 in Denmark, 2 in England, 1 in Israel, 1 in Austria, 4 in Russia, 2 in Ukraine)	Igors Stepanovs (3); Imants Bleidelis (3); Marians Pahars (3), Andrejs Štolcers (1); Andrejs Prohorenkovs (3); Vitālijs Astafjevs (3); Aleksandrs Koļinko (3), Juris Laizāns (3), Jurģis Pučinskis (0), Andrejs Rubins (3); Valentīns Lobaņovs (3), Māris Verpakovskis (3)

As of July 1, 2012

Games

Aveiro Braga postage

Venues (yellow = balanced balance, red = negative balance)

Latvia played three European Championship games, none of which were won, two were lost and one ended in a draw. No game had to be extended.

Latvia never played the opening game, never played against the hosts, the eventual European champions or the defending champions.

Neither of the two defeats is the highest against these countries. The draw against Germany is the best result against Germany so far, two more games - but they were lost before the Second World War .

All EM games
No.	date	opponent	Result	occasion		venue	Remarks
1	06/15/2004	Czech Republic	1: 2	Preliminary round	*	Aveiro ( PRT )	First international match against the Czech Republic
2	06/19/2004	Germany	0-0	Preliminary round	*	Postage ( PRT )
3	06/23/2004	Netherlands	0: 3	Preliminary round	*	Braga ( PRT )	First international match against the Netherlands

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In the 1994 World Cup qualification, they drew five times and lost seven games.