Ireland Republic and Latvia begin their preparations for the European Championship qualification with a match on Wednesday, a few days to the group stage matches. Both teams have different goals for the year with Ireland Republic expected to achieve more. I think this tie should see Ireland Republic grab a big win on home soil so my recommended betting pick for this game would be Ireland to win by two goals or more. Here's why you should back a handicap win for the hosts;
[1] Ireland Republic has a young energetic squad and many of them are looking to impress ahead of their game against France so we are expecting the best version of these players against Latvia. At their best, the Republic of Ireland can demolish the Latvians at home and the question is just how many goals they would score. Ireland Republic is ranked in the top 50 on the FIFA World rankings, sitting at 48th position while Latvia doesn't even make the first 100; ranking 133 in the world. There is no doubt about the huge difference in quality between both teams and I expect the Republic of Ireland to score plenty of goals against Latvia who can barely respond with a blunt attack.
[2] Latvia is a team that is very poor away from home and more especially against the top 50 teams. The Latvians have never won a game away to a country side that is ranked top 50. The recent world cup qualification ended in a shambles for Latvia as they finished fifth in a group of six and hence did not participate in the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Latvia lost half of their games in the group stages and they have seen heavy defeats on the road recently like the 7-1 loss to Germany and the loss against Netherlands. Northern Ireland is a team that loves to play at home and they can crush the weak Latvia team. If you need a safe bet with high value, you should be staking on the the Ireland Republic to win by two goals or more.
