| Euro 2008: Northern Ireland fall to Latvia |
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| Written by Zico Kelly | |||||||
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Monday, 10 September 2007
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 Northern Ireland's unbeaten run came to a end as they sendured a 1-0 defeat to Latvia in Riga and left their chances of qualifying for Euro 2008 on a knife-edge. An own-goal from stand-in skipper Chris Baird after 56 minutes separated the two teams and left the 2,000 travelling fans disappointed. Online betting shop SportsBetting.com has Latvia at +500 betting odds to win Euro 2008.The result was unexpected given Northern Ireland's recent good form and the fact that Latvia had lost seven games in a row, and manager Nigel Worthington has to lift the squad for the match in Iceland on Wednesday where a victory is now imperative. It was his second game in charge and his first defeat, but the Province struggled to get their game together. They played some good football, but only in patches, in the first half. A quick break caught Latvia cold inside the first minute. David Healy picked out Steven Davis and he released Kyle Lafferty. The Burnley striker, however, delivered a weak cross and the move broke down. Latvia hit back in the 13th minute and Maris Verpakovskis broke forward, only to drag his effort wide of the post. The Hadjuk Split striker nearly got on the end of a good cross from Juris Laizans then fired a shot wide of the post in the 22nd minute. It was Latvia who carved out the first chance of the second half when Verpakovskis sent a shot into Maik Taylor's body. Then Bleidelis raced away past George McCartney down the left in the 53rd minute- but was wasteful sending his cross onto the roof of the net. Northern Ireland were rocked in the 56th minute when Latvia took the lead. Andrejs Rubins skipped away from Clingan and found Verpakovskis who delivered the ball into the area. Baird got his bearings wrong and only succeeded in beating his own goalkeeper. SportsBetting.com has posted European Football betting odds to win Euro 2008: 66 - 1 Belgium 350 - 1 Bosnia 350 - 1 Bulgaria 100 - 1 Croatia 22 - 1 Czech Rep 22 - 1 Denmark 80 - 1 England 10 - 1 Estonia 5000 - 1 Finland 400 - 1 France 13 - 2 Germany 11 - 2 Greece 33 - 1 Holland 17 - 2 Hungary 1000 - 1 Israel 125 - 1 Italy 11 - 2 Latvia 500 - 1 Macedonia 1000 - 1 Northern Ireland 300 - 1 Norway 125 - 1 Poland 50 - 1 Portugal 10 - 1 Rep Ireland 125 - 1 Romania 50 - 1 Russia 40 - 1 Scotland 150 - 1 Slovakia 200 - 1 Slovenia 250 - 1 Spain 8 - 1 Sweden 20 - 1 Switzerland 22 - 1 Turkey 33 - 1 Ukraine 80 - 1 Wales 2000 - 1                        |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 10 September 2007 ) | |||||||