Aaron Ramsay put the visitors ahead after 27 minutes from the penalty spot after a pointless elbow from defender Kaspars Dubra, and though Wales continued to enjoy most of the possession and goal-scoring chances, the score remained 1:0 until deep into injury time at the end of the second half, when David Brooks doubled the lead.
Raimonds Krollis went close for the hosts but was unable to bury his chances, and Janis Ikaunieks was perhaps lucky not to see his yellow card upgraded to a red.
Despite the loss, the Latvian team will take some heart from avoiding a repeat of last week's 5:0 drubbing by Croatia, and it should also be remembered that Wales' recent European Championship record is a good one, having made the semi-finals in 2016and the last 16 in the 2020 tournament which was postponed to 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
Currently Croatia is ranked 6th in the world by FIFA, Wales is ranked 35th, and Latvia is a lowly 134rd, which also puts the results into context.
Croatia and Turkey lead group D with ten points in four and five games, respectively, Armenia and Wales have seven points from five matches, but Latvia's points tally has remained empty in five matches. Qualification for Euro 2024 is out of the question, but the team will have a chance to battle for pride's sake at home against Armenia on October 12.
