Latvia vs Norway Prediction: the Latvians to Earn First Points

Prediction for the Hockey World Cup Latvia vs Norway match, which will take place on May 16. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

Latvia continues to fail under Harijs Vitolins. So far, the new head coach has achieved only one significant success: qualification for the Beijing Olympics. But in the final part of the tournament, they lost in all games in regulation time, stopping already in the last 16. Latvians blew their debut at World Cup-2022, falling 1:4 to the United States. It seemed that in the second game, they would create a great sensation, as by the equator of the meeting, they beat Finland - 1:0, but then conceded twice and lost - 1:2, occupying the last place in Group B.

Norway looks worse with each new World Cup, as the former leaders have either finished their careers or are older and can't be as impressive as they used to be. They have no new stars either, so they came to the 2022 World Cup with the only aim of not dropping out of the elite division. In their first match, Petter Thoresen's charges suffered a huge defeat against the U.S. national team, 0:5, but it is unlikely that anyone judged them for that. Still, for the game with the Great Britain the team has to be criticized as they were about to outplay the main outsider of Group A - 3:0, but conceded three times and won only in a shootouts - 4:3.

Latvia is currently behind Norway in the Group A standings, but they show more meaningful and high-quality playing than the Vikings. The upcoming game is a great chance for Harijs Vitoliņš's wards to not only gain their first points of the tournament, but also win. As a result, we bet on the victory of the Latvian national team.

• The Latvian national team has lost during regular time in the last six consecutive official matches.
• The Norwegian national team has failed in regulation time only once in the recent five games.
• In the previous eight face-to-face meetings at the world championships, the Latvians and Norwegians have won four victories each.

It is not worth expecting high productivity from the upcoming confrontation. The opponents might struggle soon for survival in the elite division, so no one will risk giving each other chances. Moreover, over the last five head-to-head encounters, both have scored 22 goals (4.40 per game on average) so even now, a total udner 4.5 is a good option.

Rūdolfs Balcers is one of the main hopes of Latvia in the offense. Now he is a player of the NHL San Jose club. In the last regular season he earned 23 points (11 goals + 12 assists) in 61 games. In addition, Balcers always converts many chances for his national team. In the 2019 World Cup he gained 9 points (1 puck + 8 assists) in seven games. At the 2022 World Cup Rūdolfs also managed to send a goal, so it is worth to look at the total over 0.5 by Rudolfs Balcers.

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