For Group A of the qualifying round of the UEFA European Championship 2016, on 16th November at Amsterdam Arena, the Netherlands play Latvia.
One would expect a lot more from the side that finished third in the last World Cup. Instead with only one win and two losses they now stand third on the table and a long 6 points from the top. They have suffered a rather expectable defeat by the Czechs 2-1 and another most surprising one from Island 2-0 which can be considered as humiliating. That alone is enough of an incentive for the Netherlands to win over a side that has no victories and two draws against teams of lower caliber than the Dutch.
There is one more motive for them to pursue. Both the Czechs and Island are undefeated and they now pose as the most serious candidates for qualifying, leaving the Netherlands out of the finals. For a side of this magnitude this is nothing less than a major failure and they are expected to do everything in their power to avoid it.
No one would expect Latvia to play any role to the qualification round other than being the usual respectable team. They have scored only once and they have conceded four goals thus far. It would be a great surprise of they could score even once, let alone get away with anything more than an honorable defeat. Against a side with serious motives to pursue, they are more than likely to leave the field with a little less than that.
The history includes only one other game played between the two sides which ended in a victory for the Dutch 3-0. More or less it is expected that this fixture will end with about the same result.