Kazakevich: I told the guys all the time that we haven’t done anything yet

It has already been reported that in the final match of the first group of the UEFA Nations League D League, Latvia played a draw against Andorra with a score of 1:1 (0:0), but that was enough to ensure the third place in the Nations League or C League.

“Before the qualification cycle itself, I did not expect that everything would be easy for us. Not only the Moldovan team is equal to us, but also Andorra is a team that has caused us great difficulties in previous years,” said Kazakevic. “The good start of the tournament with four wins in four games put a certain psychological pressure, because qualification seemed to be a foregone conclusion for many. I told the guys all the time that we haven’t done anything yet, that everything is still ahead. However, as a team, we don’t have much experience in solving sports tasks from from the point of view of the tournament table, so I expected two difficult games.”

Defender Mārcis Oš, midfielder Vladimirs Kameš, Renārs Varslavāns and forward Roberts Uldriķis, who were injured, could not help the national team in this selection window. The head coach did not hide that the lack of these players was felt on the field.

“I believe that we deservedly won the entire tournament and were the best team. Yes, today’s game was not our best, but neither I nor the boys have anything to be ashamed of. We have to draw conclusions and learn from this game,” said the coach. “Obviously, we wanted to win and do it convincingly, but we weren’t ready to dominate on the pitch. This was the game where we didn’t show our best performance, but we got the result we needed.”

Latvia won the first group with 13 points, followed by Moldova with the same number of points, but a worse balance of scored and lost goals. Third place was taken by Andorra with eight points, while Liechtenstein settled for the fourth position, which did not get any points.