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The new coach of the Latvian national team, former famous country's football player Marians Pahars, was officially appointed on Thursday.
The 36-year-old specialist, who has been working at Riga's "Skonto" club since 2010 and took over the reins of the Latvian youth team this year, will replace Aleksandrs Starkovs, who resigned due to poor results.
During his playing career, Pahars became famous in England, where he wore the jersey of "Southampton" for eight years. His most successful season was in 2001-2002, when he scored 14 goals in 36 English Premier League matches.
In the World Cup qualifying tournament group G, where Lithuania is also competing, the Latvians won only four points in 6 matches and currently occupy the penultimate fifth place. The last two matches were particularly unsuccessful: in March, they played a 1-1 draw with Liechtenstein away, and at the beginning of June, they lost 0-5 to Bosnia and Herzegovina at home.
Interestingly, the Latvian team will still have two matches against Lithuania. The first match will take place in Riga on September 6, and the return match will be on October 11 in Vilnius.
