© EuroFootball.com
Latvian fans applauded their national team, even though the team lost to the Czech national team on Tuesday.
Although there were no more than a few hundred fans wearing dark red shirts, the small Baltic nation's supporters at the end of the match at the Aveiro Municipal stadium made such a noise as if there were thousands of them.
Some fans cried after Latvia, whose chances of winning Euro 2004 were rated at 1:500, managed to break forward and take the lead in the 27th minute. This happened after a successful counterattack by the Latvians at the end of the first half.
Owning no more than two sections of the stadium, fans chanted and applauded until the 73rd minute when Milan Baros and substitute Marek Heinz scored five minutes before the end of the match, crushing Latvian hopes.
"Of course, today's performance gives us more confidence for the upcoming matches," said Latvian national team coach Aleksandrs Starkovs.
In the remaining group matches, Latvia will have to face three-time European champions Germany and once continental cup winners the Netherlands.
Some fans took a three-day bus journey to Portugal, while others flew in to witness their country's team's great performance, some even from the United States.
Latvia, a country with only 2.3 million inhabitants, made its first breakthrough to a major tournament, and fans from all over the world gathered to witness this debut.
Middle-class fans, many of whom watched all of Latvia's national team's qualifying matches both at home and away, formed groups, arriving together by plane or car in Portugal, but the majority came here by bus.
Some fans had never seen Latvia's national team play live or even on TV before. Among them are father and son Lev and Mark Rabino-viches, who have been living in the United States for the past 17 years.
"Football in Latvia, while it was part of the Soviet Union, was not particularly strong. Lithuania and Ukraine were stronger," says Lev. Latvia broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991.
"But this team defeated football countries like Poland, Hungary, and Sweden. We were really surprised. We started to pay attention since Latvia played the knockout match against Turkey and won their opponents 1:0 in Riga. We watched the broadcast of the second match online. When Latvia scored two response goals (in Istanbul, Turkey was leading 2:0, but the Latvians leveled the score and won with an aggregate result of 3:2), we talked to our relatives in Riga for fifteen minutes. They watched the match on TV."
Drunk Kleberas said that about 1000 fans gathered at Riga airport to congratulate the team on their victory against Turkey and reaching the final part of the European Championship. According to him, football in the country ranks a modest third in popularity, trailing behind ice hockey and basketball.
