Most famous players...
If you watched the Premier League in the late 90s to the mid-2000s, you may remember Marian Pahars (pictured) who played for Southampton between 1999 and 2006, scoring 43 goals in 137 league games.
Pahars is the fourth most prolific goalscorer in the history of the Latvia national team with 15 goals. But the record goalscorer is Maris Verpakovskis who has scored 29 goals in over 100 caps. He is still a squad member and could face Ireland tonight.
Manager
Pahars is the current Latvia manager. He got the job in July after a few months as the country's U21 manager.
Latvia's greatest moment...
The Baltic nation reached its first major tournament in 2004 when they qualified for the European Championships. After edging past Turkey in a qualification play-off, Latvia did not disgrace themselves in Portugal despite finishing bottom of the group. They did manage to hold a poor Germany side to goalless draw and avoided major thrashings against Holland and Czech Republic in what was a tough group.
Recent form
Ranked 117th in the world, have won just one of their past 10 games. They finished fifth in Group G of World Cup qualifying, winning just two of their 10 games in a group featuring Bosnia, Greece, Slovakia, Lithuania and Liechtenstein.
Record against Ireland...
The Boys of Green have played Latvia four times and won each time, scoring 11 times and conceding just once.
©INPHO/James Crombie
