The match will be played in Riga, so far for Ventspils, cause the local stadium is not in line with Uefa rules.
Newcastle should show a better form condition than the last preliminar round, cause Premiership first round is now very near and the difference between the teams should be calculate so only over the quality in field.
Ventspils started the Latvia league in big style: they are standing at the top of the league and they didn't suffer any lost match till now.
Newcastle has IMO the best state in the middle zone, very strong this year cause it's a mix of quality, technical ability and there are good runners too to cover the defense, more the presence of Duff can guarantee good quality to build the attack game, ready to support the attack front probable based over the couple Ameobi-Luque.
Bramble and Emre should be the wall in front of latvian midfielders; the defensive line is well covered by Taylor, Moore and Babayaro.
Ventspils is the best team currently in Latvia: the numbers of them are clears (no lost games from 16 matches and close defensive system at home ground).
We should consider, reading these info, that the difference from Latvia league and an english team is very large: more Newcastle, even if not involved yet in Premiership, played a good numbers of friendly matches, showing good propension for the attack game, leaving maybe something to add in defensive zone.
I guess Newcastle could have a comfortable win, being very big the gap today.
10.8.2006 19:45 FK Ventspils - Newcastle, Newcastle @ 1.40 at Unibet
source: www.betshoot.com
