Euroscene: For those of us old enough and lucky enough to have been around for Germany '88, this is a week when we can sympathise with little Latvia. Sixteen years ago in Germany, Jack Charlton's Ireland were the unknown quantity, the upstarts who had bumbled onto the world stage, writes Paddy Agnew.
Over the next two weeks in Portugal, it will be Latvia's turn to act out the role of the latest "David" on the block as they head into an intimidating first-round trio of matches against the Czech Republic, Germany and Holland, in that order.
To be fair, however, comparisons between Ireland's 1988 team and this Latvia one do not hold.
For a start, the Ireland squad of 16 years ago comprised mainly English first division players including outstanding talent such as Kevin Moran, Paul McGrath, Ray Houghton, Ronnie Whelan, Frank Stapleton and John Aldridge.
Latvia, in contrast, have a player pool of just 100 professionals in the country. It is true, of course, the squad for Euro 2004 includes players who earn their daily crust in the Austrian, Belgian, Israeli, Russian and Ukraine leagues, not to mention the English Premiership (Andrejs Stolcers of Fulham and Marian Pahars at Southampton).
Yet, the reality of the Latvian squad is that it also contains 10 players who play for Latvian clubs while many of the foreign-based players tend to spend more time on the substitutes' bench than on the pitch. Put simply, this is as "minnow" a "minnow" as ever turned up for a finals tournament and, unlike the much stronger Ireland side in '88, will pull off one of the all-time surprises of modern football if they pick up even a point.
The hero of the qualifying games, Dinamo Kiev striker Maris Verpakovskis, is the first to concede that just "being there" means a lot to his little country (population 2.3 million): "Just getting to the finals at all counts for so much." he recently told World Soccer, adding. "So many Latvians are saying that we should just play our game and not care about the final outcome. That's probably a good attitude. It is always easy to play when you do not feel the weight of responsibility. It's our main advantage. If we take points from one of our main opponents, we'll consider it a success."
According to the form book, Latvia's chances of taking points are not good. Second, in a suspiciously weak looking qualifying group won by Sweden and including Poland, Hungary and San Marino, the Latvians earned their place in Portugal thanks to having taken full advantage of Turkey's complacency and over-confidence in a play-off tie (1-0, 2-2).
Subsequent defeats by Kuwait, Hungary and Belarus, as well as a 2-2 draw with Azerbaijan on Sunday night (and that thanks only to an 83rd-minute equaliser from the penalty spot) all suggest Latvia are going to be out of their depth.
For all that, though, the Latvians will surely not be without support when they trot out at the Bessa stadium in Oporto on June 19th to face Germany. This one will offer an opportunity for all those (about half the human race) who loathe Germany's normally relentless progress at a tournament and also crave a major "upset".
Given some recent poor German performances (a 5-1 defeat by Romania last March and a 2-0 defeat by Hungary in Kaiserslautern on Sunday night) all Latvian hope is not lost. Yet friendlies are one thing and the finals another, and the bottom line for the Latvians is they are looking at three straight defeats in their first appearance on the world stage.
If you are a hopeless romantic, or indeed if you like the idea of backing a total outsider, then we can hold out one final crumb of comfort. Namely, that the Latvian players, unlike their up-market rivals from Europe's biggest leagues, are sure to come into the competition fresh and fit. After all, football in Latvia goes into hibernation from October to April.
After all, too, there is no harm in dreaming. As coach Aleksandrs Starnovs puts it: "In football, there is no such thing as an unbeatable team. We will remember that when we play Germany, Holland and the Czechs."
