North Macedonia will travel to Stadions Skonto in Riga for Thursday's UEFA Nations League clash against Latvia in Group C4.
The hosts began the 2024-25 campaign with a win over the Faroe Islands, while the visitors got the better of Armenia on matchday one.
Match preview
Latvia are competing in their maiden League C campaign after winning promotion from League D in the 2022-23 Nations League.
They won four, drew one and lost one of their six matches to finish in top spot and just ahead of second-placed Moldova on head-to-head goal difference.
Latvia have made a mixed start to League C, losing 4-1 in their away game with Armenia before getting on the board with a narrow win over the Faroe Islands.
Renars Varslavans's 64th-minute effort proved enough to sink the Faroe Islands and move his country level on points with second-placed Armenia.
Having won three of their last four Nations League home games, Latvia will be desperate to produce another strong home performance as they look to claim their first-ever win over North Macedonia.
North Macedonia will be hoping to launch a promotion bid in the current edition of the Nations League after experiencing an underwhelming campaign in 2022-23.
Blagoja Milevski's side won two, drew one and lost three of their six matches as they finished in third place and nine points adrift of group winners Georgia.
North Macedonia will be satisfied with their start to their current campaign despite having to settle for a 1-1 draw in their opening game against the Faroe Islands.
After being held to a point on their travels, North Macedonia produced an impressive display to beat Armenia with 10 men in last month's clash in Skopje.
Gjoko Zajkov may have been given his marching orders in first-half stoppage time, but Enis Bardhi and Bojan Miovski both got on the scoresheet to fire their country to a 2-0 victory.
As a result of that impressive win, North Macedonia are now looking to record consecutive victories in the same Nations League campaign since beating Liechtenstein and Gibraltar in November 2018.
Team News
Latvia boss Paolo Nicolato could be tempted to select the same side that started last month's narrow 1-0 victory against the Faroe Islands.
If Nicolato does stick with an unchanged XI then Latvia with line up with a back three containing Raivis Jurkovskis, Daniels Balodis and Kristers Tobers.
Janis Ikaunieks is set to feature in the final third, and he will head into the game in a confident mood after scoring three goals in his last two matches for his club side RFS, including a goal in the recent 2-2 draw against Galatasaray in the Europa League.
As for North Macedonia, Zajkov will serve a one-match suspension after being sent off in the first half of the win over Armenia.
With the defender suspended, Milevski is likely to select a back three of Visar Musliu, Nikola Serafimov and Jovan Manev.
Bardhi is set to offer one of the visitors' main goal threats after scoring in both of the opening two Nations League matches against the Faroe Islands and Armenia.
Latvia possible starting lineup:
Matrevics; Jurkovskis, Balodis, Tobers; Savalnieks, Zelenkovs, Saveljevs, Ciganiks, Varslavans; Gutkovskis, Ikaunieks
North Macedonia possible starting lineup:
Dimitrievski; Musliu, Serafimov, Manev; Dimoski, Babunski, Alimi; Churlinov, Bardhi, Elmas; Miovski
We say: Latvia 0-2 North Macedonia
North Macedonia are currently sitting 65 places above their hosts in the FIFA World Rankings, and we think they will showcase their extra quality to record a fourth consecutive head-to-head win after previously beating Latvia in 2014 and twice in 2019.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
body check tags ::
Previews by email
