Latvian national football team head coach Dainis Kazakevičs after a draw in the League of Nations game in Malta, admitted that he expected better results in the first two games of the competition, but the coach still considers victory in his group a achievable goal.
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Latvian footballers on Sunday, September 6, UEFA League of Nations the lowest or In the first group match of the D league, they fought a draw 1: 1 with Malta. In the first round match last Thursday, Latvia was unable to beat at home Andorra, fighting a draw 0: 0. After two rounds, Latvia has two points, but the leader of the Faroe Islands team has six points. Malta and the Andorran teams have one point each.
“The second game in a row in which, in my opinion, we had the advantage in terms of play. At the same time we fail to win, fail to score goals. Lack of individual mastery at the end of the attack. I can’t say that I was surprised by this problem, but before these two games I expected we will look better against such opponents at the end of the attack. “
When asked by Latvian journalists whether the players had suitable shoes for the field, the coach indicated that this was not the main problem in the game. “In a couple of episodes we had a bit of a problem with that. In the pre-game training we noticed that the field and the lawn are quite specific. It was quite different when it was wet and when it wasn’t. In two or three episodes it caused us some problems, but at the same time Admittedly, it was far from being our main problem this time around. “
“You already knew well the situation we had with the attackers in this camp. As a result, we additionally invited Raimonds Krolls to the national team. Given that Dāvis was injured and did not train in the first part of the camp, he was not ready to show his best game for objective reasons. At the same time, we were hoping for his qualities in the second half of the game, when the opponents were already tired. We expected that with Dāvis leaving the field we will be able to exacerbate the situation near the opponents’ goal, “the coach explained one of the player substitutions.
In turn, the Latvian national football player Raivis Andris Jurkovskis explained the goal loss episode, as well as pointed out that the national team lacks the goals and confidence gained at crucial moments.
“Opponents changed sides, I stood in front of the player, tried to overtake. He missed me – I made a mistake. A pass was scored along the goal and a goal was scored,” Jurkovskis remembers the situation when Latvia lost the goal. “After that I tried not to go so narrow that the diagonals would not pass so dangerously so that he would not be so active in the whole game. And I called Andrejs to help me in defense. I agree with the coach that we had to score a second goal in the middle of the first half. on our side. We reached the level and started offensive at 1: 1 – we attacked more, created opportunities to score goals. I think at least one of them should have been used. Then the game would have gone differently. “
“If you compare Andorra and Malta, the two teams play quite similarly. However, Malta has stronger individual players. It seemed to me that Malta is a stronger opponent. During the half-time . “Have we improved our performance compared to last year? Hard to say. Last year, however, we had different types of games, other opponents, we were forced to play differently. Maybe it may seem like we have more control of the ball now, we’re creating more goals, but maybe it’s because the opponents are very different this time around. Lack of goals scored. Lack of confidence at crucial moments. “
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