RIGA — Tonight FC Ventspils will play away to Bundesliga side Hertha BSC Berlin in the group stage of UEFA Europa League.

In a year of firsts for Ventspils, this will be the first time a Latvian football team has played in the group stage of a major European competition. After reaching the final round of qualifying for the top tier Champions League last month before losing out to FC Zurich, Ventspils were guaranteed automatic entry into group stage of the second-tier competition.

Ventspils have been drawn in group D (one of 12 groups) alongside this evening’s opponent as well as Portuguese side Sporting and Dutch team Heerenveen. Although just getting to this stage is already a massive achievement for the Latvians, they will be hoping to push on and stamp their mark on the wider Europe footballing community.

However, if they are to push on they will need to work on their record playing away from home, having recorded just 3 wins out of 25 away games when playing in UEFA competitions. Tonight Hertha will go into the match as favourites, which will suit Ventspils just fine as they hope to catch the Germans with their guard down.

balticreports.com prediction: With a less than enviable away record in UEFA competitions, it is difficult to see Ventspils get up against a German side who has recently been showing great domestic form in the highly regarded Bundesliga. Ventspils have not had the best run of late, including a loss in the much weaker Virsliga just two weeks ago. Hertha to win 2-0.