Before the start of the EURO 2021, the DFB team will play its last test match on Monday evening against Latvia.
While the four-time world champions will be looking to boost their self-confidence with a clear win against the Latvians after their lumpy performance against Denmark, the underdogs, who have not qualified for the European Championship, will only be concerned with not going down too badly.
My Germany Latvia tip sees the DFB team in the clear favourite role.
Even after the return of Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels, Jogi Löw’s team is still not running smoothly.
In the first European Championship test against Denmark, the German national team lacked the necessary offensive power and had to settle for a 1-1 draw in the end.
In any case, the attack remains the big problem child of the DFB team. In the past three games, they have scored only one goal each and in the last five games, only the 3-0 win against Iceland resulted in more than one goal.
All in all, the recent record of the team is very much open to improvement. Germany have only managed two victories in their last five games and will therefore face a landmark match against Latvia, especially in terms of atmosphere.
In the run-up to the European Championship, however, the Germans can take heart from their recent European Championship record.
After all, the DFB team has reached at least the semi-finals of the European Championship since 2008. The last title, however, was a quarter of a century ago. The last time they won the trophy in England was in 1996.
Ahead of the clash with Latvia, recent Champions League winners Timo Werner, Antonio Rüdiger and Kai Havertz are pushing their way into the DFB squad. In addition, Man City professional Ilkay Gündogan should provide more stability in midfield.
Accordingly, it is no surprise that Germany will go into the match against Latvia as clear favourites despite their recent stumbles. In fact, the odds for a home win are currently far below 1.10. Therefore, a handicap bet will be interesting for the test duel.
While the DFB team is preparing for the European Championship, Latvia is currently playing – literally – in its own league.
In the so-called Baltic Cup, Dainis Kazakevics’ team is competing with Estonia and Lithuania for footballing supremacy in the Baltic States and is currently greeting from first place in the table after a 3:1 victory over Lithuania.
However, the Latvians will not get serious until the World Cup qualifiers in September.
However, the start to the World Cup qualifiers could hardly have been worse.
After defeats against Montenegro (1:2) and the Netherlands (0:2) as well as a draw against Turkey (3:3), they are in second-last place in the table with one point and are already five points behind the qualifying places.
However, this is not surprising. As an independent country, Latvia has never qualified for a World Cup up to this point.
Their greatest success to date dates back to 2004. At that time, they made it to a European Championshipfor the only time. In the end, however, they were eliminated from the preliminary round without a chance.
Fitting for this: Top bookmakers like Tipwin (everything about the Tipwin app) list a Latvian success against the DFB team with odds deep in double figures.
The significance of the direct comparison, however, is limited. After all, the two national teams have only met three times so far.
Two of those duels took place between 1935 and 1937. The only modern encounter dates back to the 2004 European Championship in Portugal.
In the group stage, the Latvians sensationally held the DFB team to a 0-0 draw and snatched their only point at a major tournament.
Conclusion: Even if the German national team does not really leave a stable impression at the moment, there is nothing to doubt about their role as favourites against Latvia.
