It has already been reported that on Saturday, the Latvian national team lost 0:2 to Croatia in the last game of the 2024 European Championship qualification tournament, took the last place among the five teams in the group with three points and did not qualify for the final tournament.
“We don’t particularly focus on the results of the Polish national team in this cycle, but on our own game and prepare for the next season,” says the coach. We have ideas that we want to implement in tomorrow’s match, based on the strength of the teams.”
Since mid-September, Poland has had a new senior coach, Michal Probezh.
Kazakevics admits that they have studied the last games under the leadership of the new coach, and considering the predicted starting line-up of the Polish national team, there are great similarities with what was seen in the previous games, which allows us to predict similar fundamentals of the opponents’ game.
“We understand in which areas of the field and in which phases of the game we can try to gain an advantage,” says the coach, who is already starting to prepare the team for next season’s tests in Poland, but emphasizes that the Poles are a strong opponent.
“They are not really satisfied with their performance in this cycle, but I think they will be very motivated in front of their spectators,” Kazakevičs cautions. “One of the goals for tomorrow’s game is to find your four or five moments to have chances to score goals.”
He also reveals that in certain phases of the game, players, positions and formations that have not been tried before can be tried in the match against Poland.
“Taking into account the background of the test match, our setup will be to try some individual things against a strong opponent that we have tried before in other games,” says the coach.
Midfielder Andrejs Ciganiks, who plays in the Polish Premier League, admitted that he also watches a lot of Polish national team matches, and emphasized that “we shouldn’t worry too much about surnames”.
“It’s not new to me and the team-mates of the national team that the opponents have players with a bigger international reputation,” he recalls, adding that he feels good after the match against Croatia and that he does not find it difficult to play every two days.
“As far as I spoke with the other players, everyone is ready. It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to play in front of such a large number of spectators, so tomorrow we will fight and try to show ourselves from the best side,” promises the midfielder.
He reminds that the Polish national team is the goal of all Polish footballers and is sure that there will be many scouts at Tuesday’s game.
Before the two November national team “window” matches, defenders Raivis Andris Jurkovskis and Krišs Kārkliņš returned to the list of candidates for the Latvian national team, but compared to the previous games, defenders Kirila Iļjin and Oskaras Vienties are not in the list of candidates.
The list of candidates for the Latvian men’s football team for the November games:
goalkeepers – Roberts Ozols (“Auda”), Nils Toms Puriņš, Rihards Matrevics (both – “Riga”);
defenders – Kaspars Dubra (“Panevezys”, Lithuania), Roberts Savalnieks, Mārcis Oš, Vladislavs Sorokins (all – RFS), Antonijs Chernomordys, Raivis Andris Jurkovskis (both – “Riga”), Daniels Balodis, Maksim Toniševs (both – “Valmiera “), Krišs Kārkliņš (“Auda”);
midfielders – Jānis Ikaunieks, Dmitrijs Zelenkovs (both – RFS), Andrejs Ciganiks (Lodza “Widzew”, Poland), Dāvis Ikaunieks (“Jablonec”, Czech Republic), Alvis Jaunzems (Melecas “Stal”, Poland), Eduards Emsis (“Raufoss “, Norway), Kristers Tobers (Zurich “Grasshoppers”, Switzerland), Aleksej Saveljevs (“Auda”), Eduards Dashkevičs (“Riga”), Bogdans Samoilovs (“Tukums 2000″/”Telms”);
forwards – Roberts Uldrikis (Leuwardenas Cambuur, Netherlands), Raimonds Krollis (Spezia, Italy), Marko Regza (Riga).
