Preview: Latvia vs Cyprus - prediction, team news, lineups

Latvia and Cyprus will fight for their first points of the 2026-27 UEFA Nations League campaign when they meet at Stadions Skonto on Monday.

The hosts were defeated 2-0 in their opening Group 2 game, while the visitors lost 2-1 in their first fixture.

Match preview

Latvia narrowly retained their place in League C of the UEFA Nations League after winning the relegation/promotion play-off final 2-0 on aggregate against Gibraltar.

The two 1-0 victories are their only wins across their last 14 matches, featuring five draws and seven defeats during that period.

The latest of those defeats came in their opening match of the 2026-27 UEFA Nations League campaign against Armenia on Friday evening, with goals from Georgiy Harutyunyan and Artur Gharibyan sealing the 2-0 result.

Latvia, as a result, are bottom of League C Group 2 with a -2 goal difference, leaving manager Paola Nicolato eager for his side to secure three points and climb out of the relegation playoff spot on Monday.

Visitors Cyprus are only narrowly above the bottom-placed side on goal difference, with -1 following their dramatic late defeat to Montenegro on Friday night.

Cyprus, who finished third in League C Group 2 in 2024-25 to retain their place in the third tier of the Nations League, initially took a 1-0 lead before goals from Nikola Krstovic and Milutin Osmajic sealed the 2-1 win for Montenegro.

That defeat handed Apostolos Mantzios' side their first defeat since March 2026, ending a run of two victories and one draw in their prior three international friendly fixtures.

Cyprus will now be eager to bounce back and avoid dropping to the bottom of the Group 2 table, and replicating their 1-1 draw with Latvia in 2024 would be enough to keep them narrowly above the hosts.

Latvia Nations League form:

Cyprus Nations League form:

Team News

Latvia were dominated throughout the 90 minutes in the defeat to Armenia, meaning Nicolato may decide to make changes in search of an improved showing on Monday.

As a result, the likes of Oskars Vientiess, Roberts Uldrikis and Maksims Tonisevs could come into the starting lineup.

Meanwhile, Marcus Edwards was the goalscorer for Cyprus against Montenegro and should keep his place alongside Ioannis Pittas and Marinos Tzionis in attack.

Further back, Hector Kyprianou should retain his place at the base of midfield, with Nikolas Panagiotou and Constantinos Sotiriou in central defence.

Latvia possible starting lineup:

Matrevics; Melniks, Cernomordijs, Vientiess; Tonisevs, Vapne, Zelenkovs, Cirkin; Daskevics, Gutkovskis, Uldrikis

Cyprus possible starting lineup:

Fabiano; Shikkis, Sotiriou, Panagiotou, Malekkidis; Edwards, Andreou, Kyprianou, Kastanos, Tzionis; Pittas

We say: Latvia 1-2 Cyprus

Cyprus may have suffered defeat in their opening game but they showed plenty of encouraging signs, while Latvia were dominated throughout the game by Armenia.

Furthermore, Cyprus boast greater quality in attack with the likes of Pittas and Edwards, and these players should help lead them to victory.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.