TALLINN — While Latvia continue to hunt for World Cup glory, the dream has already died for its Baltic neighbors. Nevertheless, pride will still be at stake when Estonia and Lithuania take to the field tomorrow.

Estonia have not had the greatest campaign to date with perhaps their greatest performance of recent coming against Brazil in an international friendly. Having secured just the one victory and two draws, Estonia are languishing near the bottom of group 5.

Tomorrow’s opponent is second-place Bosnia-Herzegovina, who will all but assure their second placing in the group with victory in tomorrow night’s game. In their last encounter Bosnia-Herzegovina completely ravaged the Estonians, defeating them 7-0. While no one is predicting a similar score this time round, it is still hard to see the Estonians getting up for the occasion.

Lithuania the laughing-stock

Last time out Lithuania experienced perhaps their most embarrassing loss in their history as a football-playing nation when it was defeated by the little heard off Faroe Islands (in fact my computer spell-check does not even recognize it as a country!) . The loss virtually wrecked any chance Lithuania had off qualifying for South Africa.

Tomorrow Lithuania will travel to Austria who are sitting in a similar position, having also won just three games to date. However, the Austrians have also managed the two draws to Lithuania’s none. This means Austria still have a mathematical chance of overtaking France to finish in second spot.

With the campaign all but dead and buried, Lithuanian coaching staff has decided against calling in their big names from overseas instead pulling on talent from their own domestic tournament. It is an excellent chance for the young guys to prove themselves, especially considering the performance of their more experienced countrymen last time out.

balticreports.com predictions: Bosnia-Herzogovina have all to play for against Estonia and whilst Estonia will certainly match them physically, their speed and finesse will be found wanting. The Estonians will sneak one into the back of the goal to keep their home fans happy but they are likely to concede three or four at the other end.

The young guns of Lithuania will be wanting to make the most of their chance to shine at international level so will be playing with a point to prove. However, Austria are a formidable opponent at home and will take this game 1-0.