On Wednesday, the Lithuanian champion began his journey in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers.
In the second stage, Vilnius' "Žalgiris" faced the Swedish champions, Malmo footballers. In the first match, held at the stadium of Žalgiris' opponents, the result was positive - 0:0.
Malmo started the game more actively. They spent more time with the ball and created attacks, but Žalgiris managed to neutralize them and counterattack, causing problems for the hosts.
In the 9th minute, Arminas Vitkauskas had to repel the ball for the first time in this match. A Malmo player, who had stopped Mantas Kuklys, tried to outsmart the Lithuanian goal, but failed to breach the goalkeeper's defense.
The A league winners managed to make their first strike only in the 22nd minute, when Darvydas Šernas made a weak shot from a distance. During the rest of the first half, Malmo played more actively, but Žalgiris had no major defensive problems.
The second half started dangerously from the opponents' side. In the 48th minute, A. Vitkauskas pulled the ball out from the goal line, and after 9 minutes, the Lithuanian repelled another great shot from Magnus Wolff Eikrem.
In the 76th minute, the opponents from Sweden had another great opportunity to score the first goal of the match, but none other than A. Vitkauskas prevented it. The goalkeeper pulled out from Markus Rosenberg's shot from 20 meters.
The return match between Žalgiris and Malmo at the LFF stadium will take place on July 21st.
Starting lineups:
Žalgiris: Vitkauskas, Švrljuga, Šemberas, Kerla, Vaitkūnas, Kendyshas, Chula, Pilibaitis, Kuklys, Lukša, and Šernas.
Substitutes: Klevinskas, Freidgeimas, Jankauskas, Janušauskas, Gaucho, Nyuiadzi, Eliandro.
Malmo: Azinovic, Tinnerholm, Bengtsson, Brorsson, Yotún, Kroon, Lewicki, Eikrem, Cibicki, Rosenberg, and Berget.
