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Lithuanian youth national team on March 23 in Belarus will meet with the local team in friendly matches. Igoris Pankratjevas will lead the Lithuanian team in the neighboring country, replacing the senior coach of Panevezys "Ekranas" club Saulius Širmelis for the season. The head coach of the Lithuanian national team, Algimantas Liubinskas, offered S.Širmelis the position of his assistant, but "Ekranas" turned to the Lithuanian Football Federation asking not to invite coach S.Širmelis to the youth national team match against Belarus or to the duties of the assistant coach of the national team, as the club is currently preparing for the start of the "A League" season. The LFF granted "Ekranas" request, so I.Pankratjevas was appointed as the head coach of the youth national team for the matches in Belarus. Viacheslav Sukristov will work as his assistant instead of Valdemaras Žilinskas, and Gerchardas Kvedaras and Vaclovas Jurkus remain as assistants as before. According to the team director Robert Tautkus, the possibility is not ruled out that S.Širmelis will be appointed as A.Liubinskas' assistant in the future. In the next Executive Committee meeting, the candidacies of I.Pankratjevas and V.Sukristov will be presented for approval. Meanwhile, there were difficulties in sending invitations to football clubs to summon players to the national team. R.Tautkus confirmed this fact: After sending invitations to players, we were surprised by the attitude of some football clubs towards the Lithuanian national team. For example, a letter came from "Kaunas" stating that the players we invite - A. Bartkus, T.Vyšniauskas, M.Činikas, A.Sanajeva - the club takes them to a training camp in Germany and cannot release them to the Lithuanian U-21 national team training camp before the match with Belarusians. The coach indeed wanted to see the players born in 1988 in friendly matches, especially T.Vyšniauskas. However, there is no opportunity to do so... “At the same time, I would like to thank Marijampolė's "Sūduva" - they send invited players to our national team from the club's training camp in Slovakia. Also, "Vėtra" welcomes our invitations. It is very nice when club management helps to form Lithuanian national teams - whether it is the youth team or the country's national team. We are grateful to the clubs for their positive attitude towards national teams, understanding and disregard for their own interests. I think it is also beneficial for the players themselves to be in the national team.”, said the team director. Composition of the Lithuanian youth national team for the match against Belarus Goalkeepers: Arvydas Kacinkevičius (Vilnius "Vėtra") Tadas Kauneckas (Panevėžys "Ekranas") Andrius Strukas (Kėdainiai "Nevėžis") Defenders: Deividas Padaigis ("Ekranas") Georgas Freidgeimas ("Vilnius") Kazimieras Gnedojus (Klaipėdos "Atlantas") Artiomas Barinovas ("Vėtra") Linas Klimavičius ("Ekranas") Povilas Leimonas (Marijampolės "Sūduva") Nerijus Šulcas ("Vėtra") Andrius Sanajevas ("Kaunas") Midfielders: Vaidas Slavickas ("Sūduva") Donatas Surblys ("Atlantas") Robertas Vėževičius ("Vėtra") Nerijus Valskis ("Kaunas") Justas Noreika ("Atlantas") Arvydas Veikutis (Vilnius "Žalgiris") Žilvinas Banys ("Ekranas") Donatas Remeza ("Žalgiris") Andrius Bartkus ("Kaunas") Tomas Vyšniauskas ("Kaunas") Aurimas Vertelis ("Vėtra") Dominykas Galkevičius ("Ekranas") Forwards: Andrius Urbšys ("Sūduva") Evaldas Raziulis (Samara's "Krylja Sovetov", Russia) Marius Činikas ("Kaunas")
