© EuroFootball.com
On Wednesday in the 28th round of the "A Lyga" matches, a sensational result was recorded - the 7th place team in the tournament table, "Šiauliai," crushed the championship leader "Kaunas" with a 3-0 victory at home. In other matches, victories were celebrated by "Ekranas," who advanced to second place, and "Vilnius," who have been showing good form recently. Two matches between neighboring teams in the tournament table ended in draws. The match in the temporary capital stood out with its exceptional high score, where "Nevėžis" hosted the champions "Ekranas." The exciting match ended with a total of nine goals scored, with the away team celebrating a 6-3 victory. The leader of the Panevėžys team, Mantas Savėnas, managed to score twice in the first 24 minutes of the match, while Vitalis Stankevičius scored two goals for the losing team. The away victory, which was the second in a row, was achieved by the recovering "Vilnius" club. The capital team played away against the underdog "Šilutė" and took the lead in the 29th minute with a goal from the hero of the previous round, Mindaugas Grigalevičius. However, Vytautas Lukša equalized before the break, Paulinho put "Vilnius" ahead in the middle of the second half, and Aivaras Laurišas sealed the victory at the end of the match, scoring his third goal in three matches alongside V. Lukša. "Šiauliai," who had important matches against the championship leaders, started the match with great enthusiasm and success - managing to turn three shots into three goals in the first fifteen minutes. After a few minutes, the ball bounced off several players in front of the penalty box and ended up right in front of the goal-scoring leader of "Šiauliai," the Ukrainian Ilja Galiūzas, who beat the "Kaunas" goalkeeper Mindaugas Malinauskas with a precise shot. "Šiauliai" played in a somewhat unconventional tactical formation in this match: the attacking point was occupied by I. Galiūzas, and his place as the "post striker" was taken by veteran Gintaras Juodeikis, while Gediminas Butavičius, who had mostly played as a striker, played as a left-back for the second consecutive match. Returning to the field after an illness, which forced him to miss the match on Sunday against "Sūduva," was Andrius Šidlauskas. In the ninth minute, A. Šidlauskas deceived the opponent in the penalty box and doubled the lead. Five minutes later, A. Šidlauskas received a good pass from Gintaras Juodeikis and scored the third and, as it later turned out, the last goal of the match. Although "Kaunas" immediately made changes - Linas Pilibaitis appeared on the field instead of Nukri Manchkhave, and they started to attack, they could not break through the solid defense of "Šiauliai" and beat the excellent goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis. A significant match in the fight for a place in the top four took place in Vilnius, where "Žalgiris" hosted Marijampolė's "Sūduva." Early in the match, the hosts threatened the opponent's goal, but after a corner kick, Tadas Labukas shot over the goal, and later, on the other side of the field, Aleksandras Abramenka's shot narrowly missed the target, while the shots from Eimantas Poderis and Anatolijus Ostapas did not find the target. The best chance to score in the first half was for Suvalki's goalkeeper Nerijus Mačiulis, who found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but failed to beat Ernestas Šetkus of "Žalgiris." The "Žalgiris" responded with a couple of long-range shots, but the attacks of the Marijampolė team were even more dangerous, and Besikas Čigladzė missed the goal completely, which was later followed by another shot by Julianas Bursucas, which hit directly at the goalkeeper Saulius Klevinskas. After the break, the first dangerous shot on goal came from Sūduva's goalkeeper Karolis Jasaitis, while the hosts continued with unsuccessful attempts from long range. In the 58th minute, Darius Maciulevičius missed a penalty shot, completely missing the ball. "Žalgiris" had a couple of dangerous attacks later in the half but failed to shoot effectively at the goal, and Sūduva managed to defend. The guests also had dangerous chances, but K. Jasaitis' shot was inaccurate, and E. Šetkus saved his goal after D. Maciulevičius' attempt. Towards the end of the match, both teams intensified their play to seek victory. In the 81st minute, Eimantas Poderis had a great opportunity after receiving a long pass, but being very close to the goal, he couldn't handle the ball and ultimately missed. Later, long-range shots were exchanged by Vidas Adomaitis and Valerijus Mižigurskis, while in the 87th minute, Giedrius Slavickas, who appeared after a substitution, had a good opportunity on the field, but during a counterattack, he failed to beat the reliable goalkeeper of "Žalgiris." Just a couple of minutes later, G. Slavickas missed a good chance from a promising position, while in the final minutes of the match, J. Bursucas, the Moldovan legionnaire of "Žalgiris," had a last chance to snatch the victory, but his shot from a couple of meters away was somehow blocked by the "Sūduva" defenders. Thus, both teams failing to score ended the match in a draw. In the port city, the main contenders for the third place, Klaipėda's "Atlantas" and Vilnius' "Vėtra," clashed. In the first half, the game mostly took place in the middle of the field. The clearest chance to score was for "Vėtra" midfielder Darvydas Šernas - in the 13th minute, Maksutas Azizi broke through the side of the field and passed the ball into the penalty area, but D. Šernas, who was left one-on-one with the goalkeeper, failed to stop the ball and score. After the break, "Vėtra" attacked more dangerously. In the 52nd minute, Germanas Lovčevas passed the ball to M. Azizi in the penalty area, but the "Vėtra" forward was outplayed and the danger was neutralized by "Atlantas" goalkeeper Liudvikas. In the 58th minute, Egidijus Juška shot dangerously from the side, and the goalkeeper couldn't catch the ball, but he managed to catch up with M. Azizi, who the "Atlantas" goalkeeper outsmarted and corrected his mistake. In the 65th minute, D. Šernas took a shot from a distance of 16 meters - the ball bounced off the ground just before the goalkeeper, and L. Valius easily knocked it into the net. In the 83rd minute, "Atlantas" had a chance to break through when after a corner kick, Ivo Begičius headed the ball very dangerously, but it passed over the crossbar. At the end of the match, "Vėtra" forward Rolandas Karčemarskas could have snatched the victory, but being left alone against the goalkeeper, he shot wide. The competitive match, just like in Vilnius, ended in a goalless draw 0-0, so the situation in the tournament table remained unchanged. After the match, "Vėtra" coach Aleksandras Tarchanovas stated that his team missed the injured Sergej Kuznecov the most: "If you don't score a goal, you can't win the match. We created plenty of chances, but the players' skill did not allow them to convert them. Unfortunately, today our attacking leader Sergej Kuznecov could not play, and without him, there was no player who could score. I am satisfied with our defensive play; we did not allow the opponents to create dangerous moments." Statistics Šiauliai City Stadium, 800 spectators Referee - Audrius Kancleris 3 - 0 4` [1 - 0] Ilja Galyuza 9` [2 - 0] Andrius Šidlauskas 15` [3 - 0] Andrius Šidlauskas "Šiauliai": G.Arlauskis; Oriol, Lunskis, Milevski, Atigbiolaye; Afanasenka, I.Galyuza, Juodeikis (88' Kuklys), Ščekotilin (71' Viktoravičius), Šidlauskas; Butavičius "Kaunas": Malinauskas; Kančelskis, Kunevičius, Bagužis, Radžius; Manchkava (28' Pilibaitis), Bartkus, Kvaratskhelia, Pehlič (59' Barevičius); Beniušis (73' Kšanavičius), Klimek Kaunas S.Dariaus and S.Girėno Stadium, 100 spectators Referee - Marijus Jazbutis 3 - 6 7` [0 - 1] Mantas Savėnas 24` [0 - 2] Mantas Savėnas 27` [0 - 3] Sergiy Pogreban 38` [0 - 4] Vitalijus Kavaliauskas 39` [1 - 4] Vitalis Stankevičius 65` [2 - 4] Marius Činikas 83` [2 - 5] Povilas Lukšys 90` [2 - 6] Vaidotas Šlekys 90` [3 - 6] Vitalis Stankevičius "Nevėžis": Jazokas (30' Strukas); Dobilas, Rimavičius, Slepakovas (46' D.Adomaitis), Juknevičius; Činikas, S.Butkus, Bezykornovas, Kestenis; Daunoravičius (72' Venckus), V.Stankevičius "Ekranas": Skrupskis; Paulauskas, Banevičius, Michalčuks; Gardzijauskas, Savėnas, Kučys (89' Šlekys), Petrauskas, Kavaliauskas (75' Saulėnas); Pogreban (80' Galkevičius), Lukšys Vilnius "Žalgiris" Stadium, 650 spectators Referee - Audrius Žuta 0 - 0 "Žalgiris": Šetkus; Choruži, Ngapunu, I.Steško, Krukovski; Morinas, Vilėniškis (73' Lemežis), Ostap, Bursuc; Poderis, Labukas (26' Mižigurskis) "Sūduva": S.Klevinskas; Mikuckis, G.Grigas, Gvildys, G.Klevinskas; D.Čigladze, Jasaitis, Maciulevičius (85' G.Slavickas), Mačiulis (72' V.Adomaitis), B.Čigladze (52' Osipovič); Abramenko Šilutė City Stadium, 100 spectators Referee - Saulius Atmanavičius 1 - 3 29` [1 - 0] Mindaugas Grigalevičius 40` [1 - 1] Vytautas Lukša 68` [1 - 2] Junior Paulinho 90` [1 - 3] Aivaras Laurišas "Šilutė": Vertelis; Deveika, Nesterenko, Užkuraitis, H.Grigas (79' Marozas); Zubavičius, Z.Butkus, Vyšniauskas (50' Pancerovas), Gražys (63' Juozaitis); Podelis, Grigalevičius "Vilnius": Kijewski; Sokolovas, Artiomovas, Rodnei; Lukša, Panka, Rinaldo (60' Radavičius), Everton, Paulinho; Laurišas, Wasiu (86' Mrowiec) Klaipėda "Žalgiris" Stadium, 500 spectators Referee - Gediminas Mažeika 0 - 0 "Atlantas": Valius; Žutautas, Žukauskas, Sulejmanovič, Lukoševičius (36' Šoblinskas (89' Grigaitis)); Navikas, Žernys (85' Karalius), Morozov, Ramonas; Kušov, Žvingilas "Vėtra": V.Žutautas; Sasnauskas, Raliukonis, Žudys, Barmoš; Šernas (70' Litvinas), Preikšaitis, Miloševski, Vėževičius (43' Lovčev); Juška (85' R.Karčemarskas), Azizi Tournament Table:
