E. Alimkinas: it's a pity that we couldn't achieve victories.

2025-01-29 13:00

The Lithuanian U-19 futsal national team competed in the European qualifying tournament held in Druskininkai, earning one point over three matches, finishing fourth in their group, and failing to qualify for the main qualifying tournament. The tournament began for the Lithuanians with a painful loss to Malta, followed by a recognition of Germany's superiority, and only in the final match were they able to earn a point against their peers from Georgia.

"For this qualification, we were unable to gather an optimal lineup due to injuries and certain personal reasons of players, which was the basis for our main preparation. In the last weeks, instead of our planned team leaders, we had to integrate several new players into the team. From what we had, we squeezed out quite a bit according to our capabilities.

The players' great desire and dedication allowed us to compete with significantly stronger teams. However, it is very disappointing that we couldn't achieve victories because we had every opportunity to win at least two out of three matches. Nervousness and lack of experience hindered us,” summarized the head coach of the national team, Edvinas Alimkinas, after the tournament.

The first match against Malta. Could it be that you expected this opponent to be weaker? Why weren’t you able to maintain a positive result?

Yes, although the Malta national team has a consistent background and has been competing as a club in their country's championship for several years, in this group, they were potentially the weakest opponent. This was our first official match, and most of our players were very tense, and it was evident that excitement took over despite us managing to score two goals first.

Our own mistakes in attack led to goals for the opponents. The lack of experience among players prevented us from maintaining a positive result.

How do you now evaluate whether you had chances against Germany? How, from the coaches' perspective, did this match go?

After the first match, we understood that we had to play much simpler and more cautiously in attack. The main focus should be on defense. As long as we stuck to the game plan, we defended excellently. However, that's how futsal is. It's enough to lose concentration for a moment, and you will be punished quickly. In this match, it took just two careless minutes for us to be punished with three goals.

Going into the match against Georgia, you knew there were no more chances to qualify for the next round. How much did this fact help in achieving a positive result? And does the point earned indicate that these were the best matches of the tournament?

We didn’t think so much about the result as we did about our self-respect. The players were more relaxed and enjoyed playing without pressure while representing their country. We knew the opponents were significantly stronger, but we had to do everything we could and not give up prematurely. The match was ambiguous. We were excellent in attack.

Even though the Georgians had conceded only one goal over two matches, we scored 7 against them. The fact that we couldn’t maintain a 4-goal lead and ended up conceding 7 goals shows that, from a defensive perspective, we played our worst match. However, the character and fighting spirit of our players were the most important things in this game.

What’s next? What awaits this team and these players?

Each of these players could consider linking their future with futsal and, with hard work, achieve decent results. Everything depends solely on their own ambitions. Several players have already caught the attention of the national team coach.