Glimpse of history for Latvia

By Pavle Gognidze in Riga

Aleksandrs Starkovs has already performed wonders by taking unfancied Latvia to the UEFA EURO 2004™ play-offs, but he will need to produce yet more magic on Saturday as his side welcome heavily favoured Turkey to Riga.

Depleted squad
A final-day victory in Sweden saw Latvia snatch second place in Group 4 ahead of Poland and Hungary. However, Group 7 runners-up Turkey, the 2002 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists, stand between them and a place at Portugal and Starkovs' task has not been helped by a depleted squad. Strikers Marians Pahars and Andrejs Prohorenkovs are both injured, meaning the in-form Maris Verpakovskis, scorer of three goals in the final two qualifiers, is likely to play alongside Vits Rimkus.

Confident coach
In midfield, Verpakovskis's FC Skonto team-mate Igors Semjonovs is out, as are key defenders Mihails Zemlinskis - through suspension - and Dzintars Zirnis, leaving a possible space for FK Ventspils' Igors Korablovs. Despite these reshuffles, Starkovs is in confident mood as his nation seek their first major qualification since independence from the Soviet Union.

'Valuable experience'
"We are thinking only of victory," he said. "I know it may sound naïve, but we said we were going to win in Sweden a month ago and you all know what happened. Of course, if one is objective, then Turkey are clear favourites. But we have our chances, and we will fight for the best result we can get out of this game. No one is immune to defeat, but we will get valuable experience either way."

'Once in a lifetime'
To maintain team spirit, the inspirational Zemlinskis and Pahars have stayed with the squad. "They will miss this game, but it does not mean they cannot help," the coach explained. "Their support is very important for the others." Pahars concurred, and has the support of his manager at English Premiership club Southampton FC. "Gordon Strachan understands that such games can happen once in a lifetime," Pahars said. "So there were no difficulties about travelling."

Trio miss out
Turkey themselves have several notable absentees. Sergen Yalçin, in superb form for Besiktas JK, has a stomach injury, giving a chance to club colleague Tümer Metin, while midfield player Yildiray Bastürk has a back problem and defender Alpay Özalan is ill with flu. Coach Senol Günes explained: "Yildiray and Alpay will miss the return leg also. Ilhan Mansiz and Emre Belözoglu currently have slight injuries but that will not prevent them playing in Saturday's match."

Early goal needed
Midfield player Ümit Davala warned that, although Turkey are the bookmakers' overwhelming favourites, life will not be easy in Riga. "Latvia do not have many famous players, but they are strong as a team," Umit said. "I am sure they will defend deeply, so we need to score inside the first 15 or 20 minutes. If we do not accomplish this, we can get ourselves in big trouble.

'We risk missing out'
"Despite playing away from home, we will be looking for a victory," he continued. "We could underestimate our opponents if we were playing in a group match, but we are talking about play-offs now and were cannot afford to play below our full ability. Otherwise we risk missing out on Portugal."

Turkish experience
Play-offs have not fazed Turkey in the past. They qualified for both UEFA EURO 2000™ and the 2002 World Cup via that route, and general manager Can Çobanoglu confidently predicted: "We will get the advantage we need here in Latvia. Turkey are used to playing play-off matches. We will use our experience."

Additional reporting by Oleg Sokol and Türker Tozar