When LATVIA Surprised Europe 🇱🇻

[HRVizak]

Although getting 4th place in their group, they still managed to draw with Germany (Had to leave out to keep the vid under a min)

[debadityachakraborty]

Euro 2004 was for underdogs when you realise the winner was greece🥶🇬🇷

[VATJON]

I remember at Eurovision 2004 When Latvia Announced Their Points, they said
"We might not be in Eurovision Final, But We're At Football Final"

[bababababababa]

Latvia got done EXTREMELY dirty with that group. Netherlands, Germany and Czech Republic (when they were still good). They were never getting out of that group realistically. Why do they always give the worst groups to the debutants/lowest ranked teams? Happened to Albania this year too

[siddhrajmajumdar]

Latvia before 2004:🤡👻
Latvia in 2004:💀🗿🔥
Latvia against Germany:🔥🗿💀
Latvia now:🤡👻

[sydjhn]

Everyone its about to forget how good Czech Rep. in that group

[skojuzija]

Finally at least a short about Latvia qualifying for Euro 2004! It deserves a full video

[ezraezra]

Interestingly enough, Latvian teams had also some shocking results in European Football not just the national team in Euro 2004 you're talking about.
Back in 2009, a Latvian club named "Ventspils" participated in the Europa League group stage and somehow grabbed 3 draws at that time, which included a fantastic draw against Hertha BSC and Sporting CP away.
Of course, there's RFS, who were currently in the Europa League this season. Not long before, they participated in the Conference League group stage and even grabbed a draw against Fiorentina away (they were two-time finalists).

[ivanmacgar]

If you ask me, Latvia's qualification in 2004 is actually much more impressive than Albania's or Iceland's qualification in 2016, North Macedonia's or Finland's qualification in 2020 or Georgia's or Slovenia's qualification in 2024 because there were only 16 teams qualifying, only 4 more than UEFA spots to the World Cup back then.

I also remember when one of the best football games ever made, PES6, had Latvia as one of the national teams you could play (and like half of UEFA nations weren't included, like Albania, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Israel, Armenia, Georgia...) I really thought they were a good team when I grew up as a kid.

Actually the draw against Germany could have even been a Latvia win, because in the first half German defender Wörns literally demolished Latvian striker Verpakovskis in Germany's box, but this was the pre-VAR era and wasn't called (it would've obviously been called with VAR).

So who knows, maybe Latvia could have pulled one of the biggest shocks in Euros history, alongside Iceland defeating England in 2016 and Georgia defeating Portugal in 2024.

[yusufmeireles]

Ofc Türkiye was included in such a story like that. I can remember the play-offs, I was devastated after it😅

[shreyashvaidya]

Keep in mind that Germany had a golden squad back then. With Kahn, Ballack, Lahm, Schweinsteiger and Klose. So, Latvia managing to get a draw is a big achievement for the underdogs

[gamer_sohanyt]

Imagine doing so much hard work to earn a qualified place in the torunament and then losing so badly there I am feeling so sorry for those players 😢

[PTER_Official]

Latvia's Golden Generation and Hungary's Dark Days (which unfortunately stayed for so long)

[sascha-silverthereal]

Would like to see them shock the World again.

[subhasgram]

But they drew with germany.. netherlands and czhechia were on fire on that tournament

[IHSpark]

They were the second post-Soviet nation in Europe to qualify for a major tournament, and even qualified for the Euros before Poland and Austria did.

[Ansa-sm]

They did get a draw against germany though who were world cup finalists at the time

[MixalisD_]

The EURO that Latvia and Greece, shocked all the Europe...

[arnoldsbaltnegeris]

Despite finishing last in the Group of Death, the performance in Portugal was not bad whatsoever. Czechs only escaped a loss in the last 20 minutes and Latvia was more likely to win against Germany as at least two clear penalties were not awarded. Only the match against the Netherlands was better to forget.

[gencaydal]

The only reason they beat turkey was because their home field was literally mud. All of the Turkish players were seeing anything like this for the first time in their life. I guess they were used to it as all of their players were plumbers