Auda and Grobiņa to battle for last Latvian Cup semifinal spot

The last Latvian Cup quarterfinal match takes place tonight at Skonto Stadium, featuring Virsliga's third-placed side Auda against eighth-placed Grobiņa. Three teams have already secured semifinal spots — Daugavpils advanced on Friday, while Riga and RFS both progressed yesterday.

Auda enters the match just four days after being eliminated from European competition, having lost 0:4 in Albania. In the round of 16, the club beat Liepāja 1:0, with Kader Coné scoring the only goal in the 57th minute. Grobiņa, meanwhile, won away against First League side Mārupe by the same scoreline, with Belgian newcomer Milan Corrèns netting the winner in the 85th minute.

Head-to-head history

The two sides have already met three times this season, and Grobiņa has failed to score in any of those matches, losing 0:2, 0:7 and 0:0. Since both clubs joined the Virsliga, Grobiņa has beaten Auda only once, in July 2024, but Auda has dominated their meetings ever since. In last year's Cup round of 16, Auda won with a stoppage-time goal and went on to reach the final, where it claimed the title for the second time in club history.

This marks only Grobiņa's second appearance in a Cup quarterfinal, with its best previous result being a semifinal run in 2022 while still playing in the First League. In that semifinal, Grobiņa lost 0:5 to RFS, a match that also featured current squad members Dāvids Družiņins and Devids Dobrecovs.

The two teams arrive in contrasting form — Auda's six-match winning streak ended with the Albania defeat, while Grobiņa has gone four matches without a win since its victory over Mārupe.