Latvia vs Hungary Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Latvia suffered a shock defeat on Friday as they hosted Faroe Islands in their second World Cup qualifying match and came away licking their wounds after a 2-0 defeat to them.

This followed on from a rather flat 1-0 victory over minnows Andorra in their group opener, and it certainly doesn’t bode well for their matches against the big guns of Switzerland and Portugal later in the campaign.

Latvia did finish their Euro 2016 campaign bottom of the table after picking up just five points from their ten games, but with Faroe Islands and Andorra in their group they will have been hoping to put in a fairly decent showing.

Hungary managed to make it back to the big time in the summer as they took part in Euro 2016. They managed to get a shocking 2-0 win over the drab Austria in the group opener and followed it with a draw against Iceland and a 3-3 thriller against eventual champions Portugal. They were shown the door when Belgium beat them 4-0 in the knockout stages, but it was still an excellent showing from them.

It’s not been quite as good since then. They could only manage a goalless draw at Faroe Islands in the qualifiers opening match, and despite star striker Szalai netting two against the usually defensively sound Switzerland they couldn’t hold them off at the back, losing 3-2.

Realistically, especially after these two results, they have little chance of outperforming Portugal and Switzerland to make their way to Russia in 2018, but their performances so far have been far below that which we saw in France this summer.

Fortunately for them Latvia aren’t looking good at all on home soil. They have lost five of their last eight at home and only managed to beat Lithuania and Luxembourg. This includes defeats to Kazakhstan and Faroe Islands, both of whom are lower quality opposition than Hungary.

Hungary are a good looking side going forward, and they should be able to take advantage of Latvia’s poor home form on Monday. Odds of 19/20 for a Hungary Win look good to me, and I’m going for a 2-0 correct score prediction at 7/1 as well.