Gauračs laps up Latvia acclaim

Latvia are putting up a tremendous challenge in 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying and the prolific goalscoring of Edgars Gauračs has been the key.

Two hat-tricks
The FK Ventspils striker scored a hat-trick during the 3-1 win in the Faroe Islands on 9 September, and exactly one month later repeated the trick in a 5-1 win over on Romania on Friday. That victory lifted Latvia to within three points of the leading pair in Group 1, Russia and Romania, halfway through their fixtures. "Everybody is congratulating me; I feel like it's my birthday," Gauračs told uefa.com. "However, some people have said that I shouldn't stop at a hat-trick, it's time to score four."

Top scorer
With seven goals to his name, Gauračs is now two clear of the next leading scorer in U21 qualifying, Romania's Gabriel Torje, whose side play Latvia again on 14 November. Gauračs has also proved he can score on the continental club stage, his equaliser at Hertha BSC Berlin on 17 September having earned Ventspils a surprise point on their UEFA Europa League group-stage bow. "It's a great time and I'm glad, because my job is to score," Gauračs said.

'Nothing special'
Against Romania in Riga, the 21-year-old striker showed the full range to his creative maturity, constantly menacing a Romania defence that had not conceded in their first four qualifiers. "I did not do anything special," Gauračs said. "I had three chances and luckily took all of them. It wasn't my success, it was the success of the whole team. Latvia is a small country, but in the game with Romania we proved that we can play big football."

Spectacular goals
Gauračs is too modest: his first goal was a spectacular scissor-kick that put Latvia 2-0 up and sent the Daugava Stadium crowd wild. "It was nice," conceded Gauračs. "I made an immediate decision and went crazy when I realised the ball was in the net. However, my favourite is the second one. It didn't look so good but was very hard to do. I chipped the ball over a defender at high speed and shot with my next move."

Club form
Ventspils coach Nunzio Zavettieri phoned Gauračs after the game to congratulate him – but also requested that he show that same form more often for his club. "I know I'm not as good in the Latvian championship," Gauračs admitted, before turning his thoughts to the UEFA Europa League. "I want to score more goals for my club and I feel really sorry for not scoring in the [0-0 draw] with Heerenveen, when I had a one-on-one opportunity. Our next game will be against group favorites Sporting and we want to make our fans happy, and maybe I will be able to score."