ISTANBUL, Turkey — Saturday saw the two Baltic nations feature in qualifying matches for the World Cup 2010, as Estonia traveled to Turkey and Latvia travelled to Israel.
It was the second time in recent weeks that Turks and Estonians had met in a football fixture with Estonian team, Levadia losing out to Turkish club Galatasaray in a Europa League qualifying tie. The national team were hoping to turn the tables and get one up over their Turkish opponents, in what was a must-win game for Turkey if they are to qualify for South Africa.
The Estonians started in the best possible fashion, shocking the Turks with a goal in the seventh minute to striker Vladimir Voskoboinikov. However, Turkey were back on even footing with a goal to Tuncay Sunli after 30 then moved ahead with a second to Sercan Yildirim six minutes later.
The Estonians continued to threaten the Turkish defence and were rewarded for their hard efforts with an equalizer soon after half-time to Konstantin Vassiljev. However a goal to Arda Turan in the 62nd followed by a second to Sunli soon after saw the Turks secure the three points needed to keep them in qualification contention.
The Estonians now travel to Spain tomorrow where they will take on a star-studded Spanish line-up that is coming of the back of a 5-0 thrashing of Belgium on Saturday. Victory for the Spanish will all but secure their place in South Africa and the Estonians will be hoping that the Spanish have been blinded by the bigger picture, if they are to catch them off-guard and cause an upset.
In Israel, Latvia caused a massive upset by defeating their hosts 1-0 to move into second equal in their qualifying group. This has placed a serious dent in Israel’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup whilst pushing Latvia into full contention.
The Israelis dominated the majority of play but in the end, it came down to Latvia making more of the opportunities given to them, with Kaspars Gorkšs scoring the telling goal with a well placed header in the 59th minute. Latvian veteran, Māris Verpakovskis was a telling difference between the two teams, looking dangerous whenever he got the ball. It was only a couple of ill-timed shots that saved the Israelis further humiliation.
The Latvians now have a strong chance to move to the top of the table when they host the table-topping Switzerland tomorrow in Riga. The Swiss are currently sitting three points clear at the top-of-the table after also recording a win on Saturday, defeating Greece 2-0.
Lithuania did not play on Saturday but are hoping for a relatively easy game when they travel to the Faroe Islands to play their winless opponents tomorrow. Victory could see them move to third in their group.
