On Wednesday, the second day of the annual international U-17 tournament "Amber Cup" taking place in Klaipėda. The first match was played by Lithuania-2. Roko Garastas' coached country U-16 team met with the team from Ukraine.
Our team was without the injured captain Arnas Borodinas. The captain's armband was taken over by goalkeeper Titas Krapikas.
"The boys are ready. We analyzed the Ukrainian team's matches, but we don't know what tactics they will use playing against our team. Whatever happens, the opponents' team is definitely strong. It will be a great experience for us," R. Garastas said before the match on Futbolo.TV.
His coached team actively, without any fear or hesitation, started the match. In the 8th minute, Domantas Vitkus broke through the Ukrainian goalkeeper from the right side (1:0).
The Ukrainian team, after conceding a goal, gradually recovered and had to demonstrate their skill to T. Krapikas multiple times. However, actively playing Džiugas Sūnelaitis also had a couple of chances, shooting from afar a few times.
In the second half, the guests tried to attack and equalize the score, but there were no major threats at the Lithuanian goal, and T. Krapikas neutralized other dangers.
"I am pleased with our team's small step up the ladder. Today, the boys followed instructions and understood themselves that this way they can achieve good results. Of course, there were turning points when the strength was lacking. Since a lot of work was put in during the camp, I saw how the boys tried, so today their game did not surprise me at all," R. Garastas said after the match. "We will wait for the match with older Belarusian boys. Our goal remains to move forward step by step."
Match statistics
Lithuania-2 - Ukraine 1:0 (1:0) Referee - Ugnius Veprauskas (Kaunas) Goal: 8 min. Domantas Vitkus (Lithuania-2) Yellow cards: 38 min. Matas Radžiukynas (Lithuania-2); 75 min. Yaroslav Deda (Ukraine) Lithuania-2: Titas Krapikas (Captain), Simonas Raila, Deividas Mikalauskas, Germanas Daškevičius (74 min. Lukas Sapiežinskas), Matas Radžiukynas, Džiugas Sūnelaitis, Domantas Vitkus, Tadas Paulikas, Deividas Skaržauskas, Titas Aukštuolis (64 min. Domantas Putrius), Paulius Golubickas (64 min. Mantas Rusys). Substitutes: Ovidijus Šiaulys, Neilas Urba, Artur Seražidenov, Matas Voronko. Ukraine: Danylo Khmelovsky, Oleksandr Avramenko, Yaroslav Deda, Artur Dima (32 min. Aleksey Kaschuk), Efim Konoplia, Andrii Kravchuk, Maksym Melnichuk, Aleksandr Safronov, Maksym Voitikhovsky (32 min. Ostap Malashevsky), Yaroslav Homenko, Mykhailo Plokhotniuk (32 min. Taras Petskiv).
