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One of the most interesting clashes of the 11th round of the A League took place in Vilnius, where one of the championship leaders, "Vilnius," hosted Panevezys "Ekranas." Three points were taken from the capital, and the impressive seven-game winning streak of "Vilnius" was broken by the "Ekranas" club.
Vilnius "Vėtros" stadium, 1050 spectators Referee - Deivis Kančelskis 1 - 2 Panevezys 76' [0 - 1] Sergiy Pogreban 82' [0 - 2] Povilas Lukšys 87' [1 - 2] Kleyr Vieira dos Santos
"Vilnius": Valius; Radavičius (70' Laurišas), Artiomovas, Rodnei, Sokolovas; Paulinho, Andreson, Erasmo, Lukša; Muller (84' Wasiu), Kleyr
"Ekranas": Stefanovič; Paulauskas, L.Klimavičius, Gleveckas, Skroblas; Bička (63' Lukšys), Galkevičius (58' Tomkevičius), Rimavičius, Savėnas (90' Saulėnas), Pogreban; Kavaliauskas
The teams started the match rather cautiously, but "Ekranas" had the first opportunities to score - in the 3rd minute, a ball near the goal was sent by the Panevezys defender Deimantas Bička, and later, after a corner kick, the ball bounced off Gediminas Paulauskas and whistled near the "Vilnius" goal.
The hosts tried to maintain a fast pace, but their attacks lacked accuracy. After Andrejaus Sokolov's pass to Kleyr to shoot on goal, he missed, and in the 20th minute, after receiving a pass from Muller, Paulinho headed the ball wide.
In the second half, the game leveled off and went on with a lot of battles in the middle of the field. The players from Panevezys tried to take advantage of set pieces, and in the 36th minute, after raising a corner kick towards the goal, neither Linas Klimavicius nor another defender, Dainius Gleveckas, managed to shoot.
The only "Ekranas" forward, Vitalijus Kavaliauskas, was unnoticed for a long time but when he got his first chance to attack, he immediately posed a serious threat - after his shot from the penalty area, Liudvikas Valius had to push the ball away.
As the half approached the end, the hosts responded with a dangerous attempt by Vytautas Lukša from afar and Muller's run, after which Kleyr almost reached the ball, and the visitors threatened again with a set piece - this time, D. Gleveckas' header did not hit the goal. Both teams' players had to rest without scoring.
After the break, a similar game continued - "Vilnius" attacked more, while "Ekranas" defended disciplined and waited for opportunities for counterattacks. Rodnei and V. Lukša's long-range shots were slightly different, as well as the episode when D.Gleveckas managed to "push" the ball from Muller from the penalty area.
With the second half intensifying, both teams started to create more play disruptions, and the meeting turned into a battle in the middle of the field. The game only livened up in the last quarter - first, P. Lukšys shot from the side, then Anderson's and Kleyr's penalty kicks missed the target, and in the 76th minute, "Ekranas" broke ahead. After a pass from the corner to the far post, two players were left free for Panevezys, and Sergey Pogreban headed the ball into the goal.
The missed goal forced the "Vilnius" footballers to concentrate all their efforts on the attack, and in the 82nd minute, the visitors increased their lead when the home defender Darius Artiomovas missed the ball passed to V. Kavaliauskas' teammates, and P. Lukšys took advantage of the "gift" with an accurate shot to beat L. Valius.
A few minutes later, Laurynas Rimavičius fired a powerful long-range shot on goal, and the ball "whistled" just wide, while the "Vilnius" hopes were reignited in the 87th minute by the team's attacking leader Kleyr, who, leaning back, intercepted Erasmo's pass and despite his difficult position, managed to fall and score a goal.
However, this had no significant impact on the final result, as the visitors from Panevezys cleverly managed to slow down the game, and apart from a goalkeeper Bogdan Stefanovic's mistake, when he failed to catch the ball, they had no major problems defending against "Vilnius" attempts to attack. "Ekranas" secured a victory and stopped "Vilnius's" winning streak, rising to the third position.
After the match, the coach of the capital's club, Antanas Vingilys, stated that the failures were due to defensive errors but was not inclined to exaggerate the defeat.
"The failure was caused by two mistakes in defense. The first goal was scored by 'Ekranas' with Sergej Pogreban left unmarked, and the second one they also scored after a mistake by our defenders - defending like this isn't acceptable. The quality of the pitch also hindered our game, and it cost us that we were trying to attack - we weren't prepared to play just for a draw, although we could have done that," - A. Vingilys said.
"Ironically, we probably played better than in the previous round against 'Vėtra,' but the result is the opposite. What can you do, sometimes you have to lose, but I wouldn't make a big deal out of today's match. We hope to bounce back in the next matches - a sign of good teams is that they can recover from setbacks," - said the coach of the Vilnius team.
