Dinamo Tbilisi will hold the eighth and last friendly match at the Turkish camp on February 9. Our team will compete with Riga FC, the runner-up of the Latvian Virsliga.
Football club Riga was founded in 2014 and has been competing in the Latvian Virsliga since 2016. The team plays its home matches at the 8,000-capacity Skonto Stadium, and the club colors are white and blue.
Riga won the title of Latvian champion three times, in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2018, Riga did a double, adding the Latvian Cup to the won championship. Riga celebrated the last season with silver medals won in the championship.
The Latvians arrived in Turkey on February 2, and before that they had the first camp in Dubai on January 12. On January 15, Riga defeated Al Nasri 2-1, goals were scored by Soisalo and Regja. On January 18, they held two sparring games - first they drew 1-1 with Dubai United with Pedro's goal, and then with the same score and Ilinsi's goal, they lost to the U23 team of Uzbekistan. On January 21, Riga played 4-4 against Bulgarian Botev. Two goals were scored by Niangs and Ilins, and the author of the double is indicated by Rigeli as a player who is only on trial. On January 22, Riga lost to Sofia Levski 2-3. Minchev and Tala scored the goals. On January 25, they beat Qatar U20 national team 4-1 (hattrick by Regja and a goal by Oguni), and then they lost again to Levski, this time 0-2. At the Turkish comp on February 4, Riga beat Montenegrin Decic 1-0 with a goal by new player Douglas Aurelius. On February 6, Latvians beat FC Torpedo Kutaisi 2-0. Aurelio and Chernomordis scored the goals.
It should be noted that in 2019, the captain of our team, Davit Skhirtladze, competed as part of the Latvian team for half the season. Tomislav Stipić, a Croatian football specialist, has been working as the head coach of Riga since 2023.