On Tuesday, the postponed matches of the 18th round of the "A Lyga" championship took place, in which Vilnius "Žalgiris" faced Marijampolė's "Sūduva" for the second time in a row and once again had to admit the opponents' superiority by a two-goal margin.
Vilnius "Žalgiris" stadium
Referee - Viktoras Chileckis
2 - 4
27' [1 - 0] Igoris Morinas
35' [1 - 1] Ottavio Braga
41' [1 - 2] Tomas Radzinevičius
45' [1 - 3] Tomas Radzinevičius
63' [1 - 4] Tomas Radzinevičius
66' [2 - 4] Martynas Karalius
"Žalgiris": Malinauskas (66' Šetkus); Tereškinas, Paknys (40' Jokšas), Kilikevičius, Stonkus; Valskis, Šilo, Lemežis, Morinas; Zaboras (46' Kaušpadas), Karalius
"Sūduva": V.Žutautas; Grigas, Gvildys, D.Čigladze, Veikutis; S.Butkus (85' Leimonas), V.Slavickas (46' Uselis), Cordeiro, Maciulevičius; Braga (60' Aleksa), Radzinevičius
Both teams had already tested their strength against each other three days earlier on Saturday, with the hosts celebrating a 2-0 victory in a nervous match in Marijampolė. In that game, three red cards were shown - B.Čigladze, A.Žekonis and K.Jasaitis received them and had to miss this match due to disqualification. N.Valskis, who was promoted from "Polonija" to the main team, made his debut for "Žalgiris", forward V.Zaboras entered the starting lineup, and goalkeeper E.Šetkus had a chance to show himself in the second half.
The match began more successfully for the Žalgiris team, and they took the lead in the 27th minute after a precise shot by I. Morinas. However, after eight minutes, "Sūduva" legionnaire O.Braga equalized the score, and then T.Radzinevičius' show began - at the end of the first half, he scored two goals and added another in the second half.
The result was soon lightened by M.Karalius, who scored his first goal while wearing the "Žalgiris" jersey, but it did not save the hosts from defeat. Marijampolė's hero of the match T.Radzinevičius scored a hat-trick and surpassed V.Kavaliauskas and P.Lukšys in the list of top scorers with 15 goals, one behind M.Savėnas.
This victory allowed the undefeated "Sūduva" to reduce the gap from third-placed Vilnius "Vėtra" to one point with 40 points from seven consecutive wins. Meanwhile, "Žalgiris" with 25 points remains in eighth place and practically loses hope of winning a prize place and a ticket to a European tournament, in which the legendary club participated every season since the restoration of independence.