Norway vs Latvia Predictions

• Norway are without the scorer of a third of their qualifying goals, Erling Haaland.
• Norway won with a 3+ goal margin in just one of their last nine matches.
• The main selection would have landed in 21 of Latvia’s last 22 matches since October 2019.

A huge win for Norway? No way!

There is no other way to slice it, victory is imperative for Norway here if they are to both repel Turkey’s advances while setting up a straight shootout for automatic qualification with the Netherlands on the final day. However, without the help of the talismanic Erling Haaland, Norway could find it a little harder to record a ‘cricket score’ in this one. Even without their hulking forward, the hosts should have enough firepower to put a couple of goals past #136-ranked Latvia.

By no means are we suggesting that Latvia are a footballing nation to be feared, as they have won just one of their eight qualifiers in this cycle and that was against pointless Gibraltar. However, the prediction of a Latvia +3 handicap would have landed in all three prior H2Hs and in an overwhelming amount of games against higher ranked nations than themselves across the past two years, albeit with the exception of a 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Germany back in June.

Despite their blatantly obvious flaws, Latvia will take stock from a return of four goals in two games against Turkey, who are ranked above Norway by FIFA, in this qualifying cycle. As such, it is clear that dignity and pride are reward enough to motivate the visitors to at least give it their all.