Jānis Ikaunieks and Daniels Balodis scored the goals.
In the eighth minute, after a pass from Lukas Zelaryan, Tigran Barseghyan ran alone towards the home goalkeeper from the center of the field, but Robert Ozols came out of the goal and was the first to the ball.
In the 27th minute, Barsegyan hit the bottom right corner of the goal from the middle of the penalty area.
In the 30th minute, Varazdat Harojan violated the rules in the fight for the ball on the side of the field with Alvi Jaunzema, and after a little jostling, the third numbers of both teams – Harojan and Mārci Oš – earned a yellow card.
In the very next minute, the ball went to Aleksei Saveliev, after which the visiting goalkeeper Ognjen Chancharevich had to demonstrate his skill for the first time in the game to hit the left corner of the goal from the edge of the penalty area.
In the 39th minute, Latvia took the lead after a quick attack. Jaunzems passed on the ground from the right side of the field into the penalty area, Roberts Uldriķis missed the ball, it went to Jānis Ikaunieks, who hit the goal without handling the ball. The ball, hitting the leg of the Armenian defender and the goalkeeper’s hand, still ended up in the goal net.
It was Ikauniek’s 12th goal scored in the national team, playing the 53rd game.
The second half started with Čančarević’s saved not very dangerous shots from Jaunzem and Eduard Daškėvičs.
In the 50th minute, Osh stopped Norberto Briasco from going to the goal on the edge of the penalty area. Video replay showed that it happened a few tens of centimeters before the penalty area, but Oš was given a yellow card, his second of the match, leaving Latvia in the minority.
Eduard Spercyan, taking a free kick, made a good and strong shot, but directly on top of Ozol, who saved the ball.
Being without center back Oš, head coach of the Latvian national team Dainis Kazakevičs made a change, sending defender Kaspars Dubra on the field instead of midfielder Daškevičs.
In the 59th minute, the guests also made their first change, sending forward Grant Leonas Ranos instead of central defender Styopa Mkrtchyan.
Another scuffle at the corner flag on the Latvian side of the field in the 65th minute ended with a yellow card for Eduards Emsim and a free kick for Latvia.
A minute later, as Ikaunieks was running for the ball on the visitors’ side of the field, Čančarevičs caught the ball, but slipped out of the penalty area with it.
Roberts Savalnieks hit the wall after a free kick from a good position, but it left the field from the visiting player. After a corner kick from the left, Savalnieks sent the ball to Uldrikis, who was at the near corner of the goal, who headed it further to the far corner of the goal. There, Dubra fought for the ball, but the defender of the home team did not manage to hit it further from the goal, and Balodis kicked the ball into the goal.
It was Balodi’s first goal for the national team in his sixth game for the national team.
Armenia, trying to fight back, made three substitutions, but Latvia was replaced by Marko Regža in the 82nd minute instead of Uldrikis.
In the 86th minute, Ozol saved the ball hit by Ugochukwu Ivu in the lower right corner.
In the 89th minute, Vladislavs Sorokins and Dāvis Ikaunieks came to the field instead of Jaunzem and Savalnieks.
In the five minutes of compensation time, the ball flew over the goal guarded by Ozola after Harajan’s header.
On Thursday, Croatia will meet Turkey in this group.
Croatia and Turkey have ten points in four and five games respectively, Armenia and Wales have seven points in six and five games respectively, while Latvia has three points in six games.
Latvian footballers will meet Turkey three days later in Konya. On November 18, the qualification cycle will be concluded with a home match against Croatia, and on November 21, a test match against Poland will be played as a guest.
Latvia is in the 136th position in the FIFA ranking, while Armenia is in the 91st place.
Before the 2024 European Championship qualification matches with Armenia and Turkey, head coach Dainis Kazakevičs called Bogdan Samoilov and Oskar Vienties to the national team for the first time.
At the beginning of the selection cycle, in the spring, Latvia lost 0:1 away to Wales, in the summer it lost 2:3 at home to Turkey and 1:2 away to Armenia, but in September it lost 0:5 away to Croatia and 0:2 at home to Wales.
On the other hand, the Armenians started the qualification for the European Championship with a loss to Turkey (1:2), won both Latvia and Wales (4:2) in the summer, but in September they drew with Turkey 1:1 and lost 0:1 to Croatia, continuing the fight for reaching the final tournament. .
The winners of the first two places of the ten groups enter the final tournament, while three more participants of the final tournament will be determined in March 2024 in the “play-off” games of the A, B and C leagues of the Nations League.
The European Championship will be held in ten German cities from June 14 to July 14, 2024.
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2023-10-12 17:57:32
#Latvian #football #team #defeats #Armenia #scores #points #qualification #cycle #Article
