ENGLAND stars travel to Riga tonight to face Latvia in the next step of their World Cup qualification bid.
After playing at Wembley in the thrashing of Wales on Thursday, the Daugava Stadium will be a rude awakening for the Three Lions.
England face Latvia at the Daugava Stadium[/caption]
The ground only has three stands[/caption]
It was renovated in 2018[/caption]
Instead of 90,000 fans England will play in front of just 10,461 spectators – if it is a sell-out – making it smaller than every Premier League ground.
And rather than the three tiers of Wembley, there will be just three stands.
They are situated behind a running track, and two are without roofs.
There is no seating opposite the main stand – in its place is a giant scoreboard.
The ground first opened in 1927 and has since undergone a number of renovation projects.
The stands behind the goals were built in 2018, adding 4,778 to the capacity.
The scoreboard was added at the same time, with VIP facilities built, allowing the stadium to meet Uefa Category 4 and IAAF Category 2 requirements
As well as football, the ground also played host to a new Guinness World Record for the most people running 100 metres in a 24-hour relay, with 3,807 participants.
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It is part of the Latvian National Sports Centre alongside a tennis court, a bobsleigh and luge track.
England boss Thomas Tuchel was asked about the ground, where Jordan Henderson suffered defeat against FK RFS with Ajax in the Europa League last season.
He said: “I was in a club in Germany where we were in third division, then second division, and then the team went up to first division without me, unfortunately. But we had a quite similar stadium.
“It’s very unusual. The pitch looked very good from far, I have to say, like from 20 30 meters away, the pitch looked good. We will not It’s unusual. not more and not less.
“There are no excuses if we come here as England team, if we wear England shirt, if we get caps and it’s an honour. We are proud to to represent England and it’s a dream to play any national, any national game.
“This should not hold us back. It’s the beauty of qualifiers to play in stadiums you rarely normally visit and hopefully we get a better result than Jordan Henderson in his visit.”
The ground has a 10,461 capacity[/caption]
Thomas Tuchel is excited by the trip[/caption]
