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The vice-champion of Lithuania and the winner of the cup FBK "Kaunas" are left without a head coach. The strategist Igoris Pankratjevas, who worked with the team, left the club, so in the last matches of this season's "A Lyga" with Kėdainiai "Nevėžis", the assistant coach Eugenijus Riabovas already led the Kaunas team.
"The coach's contract has ended. We had agreed that I. Pankratjevas would work with the team until the end of this season. We will decide who will become the new head coach of "Kaunas" in the nearest future," said Gintaras Ugianskis, the president of the Kaunas club, to the official website of "A Lyga".
The 41-year-old I. Pankratjevas trained the players of Klaipėda "Atlantas" from the beginning of this season until June 30th. Under his leadership, the team from the port city played more successfully than when the long-time coach Vacys Lekevičius was at the helm of "Atlantas".
"I. Pankratjevas himself made this decision, I definitely did not urge him. The coach's resignation was unexpected for me. I talked to him for a long time, tried to persuade him to stay, but Igoris refused," said the director of the port city club, V. Lekevičius, about I. Pankratjevas stepping down as the head coach of "Atlantas" at the beginning of July.
Since August 5th, I. Pankratjevas has become the strategist of "Kaunas". During the time when I. Pankratjevas led Kaunas, the team played very successfully in the Lithuanian championships - Kaunas defeated all opponents in fourteen league matches, except for Panevėžys' "Ekranas". The Kaunas team played a draw of 0-0 with the new national champions once and only recently lost in a match that didn't mean anything by a score of 2-3.
Furthermore, I. Pankratjevas and his players managed to defend the title of the LFF Cup winners, defeating "Ekranas" on the way to victory - in the semifinals, after a goalless draw at home, the Kaunas club won away with a minimal advantage over the opponents from Panevėžys and eliminated them from the tournament, while in the cup final, they won against Vilnius "Vėtra" after extra time.
