Estonia's Aleksandr Dmitrijev (center) fights for the ball with two Faroe players. Photo used courtesy of UEFA.

RIGA — A series of friendlies this week pegged the Baltic states to their usual bottom rung of national football teams with only Estonia pulling off a win against the tiny, obscure Faroe Islands but only barely.

In the final ten minutes of regular time Estonia managed to equalize and then score the winning goal after languishing behind the tiny northern island team 1-0 for most of the game. The Faroe squad is not to be underestimated against the likes of the Baltic state national teams, though, as the plucky islanders managed to bump Lithuania out of World Cup qualification last year with a 2-1 victory in Toftir.

Estonia will have a tough next game with a Euro 2012 qualifying match against Italy on Sept. 3 in Tallinn.

Meanwhile the Latvian and Lithuanian squads were their usual lackluster selves, with the Lithuanians losing at home to neighboring Belarus 2-0 on Wednesday and Latvia getting trounced by the Czech Republic in Liberec 4-1 on Tuesday.

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