Latvia vs North Macedonia Prediction: Miovski to net back-to-back UNL goals

Latvia and North Macedonia were both victorious in their most recent Uefa Nations League Group C4 games, beating the Faroe Islands (1-0) and Armenia (2-0) respectively last month. The pair are next in action on Thursday (17:00) when they face off at Skonto stadions in Riga.

Read below for my Latvia vs North Macedonia prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Robert Ozols, Vjaceslavs Isajevs and Marko Regza were all part of Latvia's squad for last month's 4-1 defeat to Armenia and 1-0 win against the Faroe Islands, but the trio aren't selected this time around.

Renars Varslavans was the hero for Latvia at home to the Faroes as he struck a 64th-minute winner, and the 23-year-old attacker should get the nod to start again alongside RFS hotshot Janis Ikaunieks, whose blistering start to the season includes a strike in the Europa League group stage against Turkish giants Galatasaray.

Football Odds

Aleks Trajkovski and Darko Churlinov have both withdrawn from the North Macedonia national team squad, while neither Agon Elezi nor Darko Velkovski have been called up by head coach Blagoja Milevski despite being part of last month's camp.

Andrej Stojchevski and Mario Ilievski have received their debut call-ups, but Kristijan Trapanovski remains sidelined through injury.

Nikola Serafimov and Gjoko Zajkov will miss Thursday's game due to suspension, leaving Milevski with a dilemma over who to partner alongside Visar Musliu in the heart of defence - Jovan Manev and Isnik Alimi are two of the main candidates.

National team stalwarts Stole Dimitrievski, Enis Bardhi and Elif Elmas are all likely to start in Riga, as is Bojan Miovski, who secured a big move to La Liga side Girona during the summer.

Latvia vs North Macedonia Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Latvia vs North Macedonia page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Latvia are 3/1, or a 25% chance, to beat North Macedonia for the first time in international football. The visitors have won all three previous meetings between the sides and are 19/20 to make it four out of four on Thursday, while a draw can be backed at 21/10.

Both teams to score is priced at 11/10 and over 2.5 total goals is available at 11/8.

Miovski (9/4) is favourite to score anytime, followed by teammates Ilievski (12/5) and Milan Ristovski (11/4), while Roberts Uldrikis (100/30) is the shortest priced for the hosts.

Match Result & Total Goals Over/Under 3.5 - North Macedonia & Under 3.5 @ 7/5

North Macedonia have dominated this fixture, winning all three meetings between the sides, but the last one was back in 2019, so we probably can't attach too much importance to past results.

After a golden few years that included an appearance at Euro 2020, North Macedonia have struggled in recent times, particularly in the last 16 months, winning just three times in 14 games, and just once in their last eight.

However, that victory did come last time out at home to Armenia, and after drawing 1-1 with the Faroe Islands three days previous, Risovi are unbeaten in Nations League Group C4 and will be in a strong position to finish top if they take all three points in Riga.

Latvia, meanwhile, have enjoyed a solid first nine months of the calendar year, losing just two of their six matches, and winning twice - a marked improvement on the eight defeats they suffered in nine games last year.

A big reason for that, though, is the fact they have been playing lower-ranked opponents. In 2023, they were grouped alongside Croatia, Turkey, Wales and Armenia in Euro 2024 qualifying, only managing to get points on the board at home to Armenia (2-0). Latvia also lost a friendly to the Republic of Ireland at the start of the year.

This year, Latvia have triumphed twice, but both have been 1-0 wins against the Faroe Islands, while they were easily beaten by Armenia (4-1) and Lithuania (2-0).

North Macedonia have much more talented players at their disposal than Latvia, so on paper, it's a game they should be winning. Of course, football isn't as simple as that, but after recovering from a first-half red card to Zajkov and scoring twice in the last 20 minutes to beat Armenia 2-0 last time out, Thursday's visitors should be confident of overcoming their hosts in Riga.

I don't envisage too many goals in this contest as North Macedonia's last seven matches have finished with three goals or fewer, and seven of Latvia's previous eight, so backing an away win and under 3.5 total goals looks like the way to go at 7/5.

Anytime Goalscorer - Bojan Miovski (MKD) @ 9/4

Two successful seasons in the Scottish Premiership, where he scored 32 goals - 16 in 2022/23 and 16 in 2023/24 - earned North Macedonia forward Miovski a big move to Spanish side Girona, who are playing in this season's revamped Uefa Champions League after finishing third in La Liga.

Miovski is yet to get off the mark for his new club side as his minutes have been limited thus far, but he made his Champions League debut against Feyenoord last week and struck for his country in a 2-0 victory over Armenia in September. That strike in Skopje was his fourth for the senior North Macedonia team and the 25-year-old will be desperate to make it five on Thursday in Riga.

Latvia shipped four goals to Armenia in their first Nations League game last month so there are vulnerabilities evident in their defence which Miovski will hope to exploit. Certainly, 9/4 is a tempting enough price to back the striker to score anytime.

Offers

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