© EuroFootball.com
Continuing preparations for the new Lithuanian championship season, two "A Lyga" clubs played friendly matches on Thursday - "Kaunas" lost to Germany's third division team Emden "Kickers", while Šiauliai played a goalless draw with Latvia's youth national team.
On Friday at 13:00 in Palanga, Klaipėda's "Atlantas" and Panevėžys "Ekranas" will test their strength, and on Saturday at 11:30 in Vilnius, two capital city clubs - "Vėtra" and "Vilnius" will meet on the field.
"Kickers" 1 - 0 "Kaunas"
According to the official website of Lithuanian champions, "Kaunas" continued their preparation for the new season in Schneverdingen, Germany, under good weather conditions.
Vladimir Kurnev's pupils played their first friendly match on Thursday evening at 19:00 local time. The opponents of the Kaunas team were the Emden "Kickers" footballers, who are currently competing in the third strongest league in Germany and have excellent chances of moving up to the second "Bundesliga".
In the Kaunas camp, spirits are not very high at the moment, as due to various injuries and ailments, Nerijus Radžius, Andrius Sanajevas, Nukri Manchkava, Giedrius Barevičius, and Artūras Rimkevičius were unable to play in the friendly matches. Also, Bosnian Edin Pehličius, Belarusians Vyacheslav Hlebas and Oleg Strachanovičius, as well as Lithuanians Mindaugas Malinauskas and Ričardas Beniušis, and Senegalese Pascalis Mendy did not join the camp after traveling to their national team camps.
Despite this, the Kaunas team started the match actively and in the 14th minute had a chance to score, but Mindaugas Grigalevičius failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The German team quickly punished the Kaunas team and in the 19th minute, scored the only goal of the match after a set piece.
In the friendly match, Mantas Fridrikas received a red card in the 29th minute and until the break, FBK "Kaunas" played with a numerical disadvantage. Just before the break, the same M. Grigalevičius did not take advantage of another hundred percent chance.
In the second half of the friendly match, the referees again allowed the Kaunas team to play with a full lineup. Instead of M. Fridrikas, Slovak Ivan Brezina appeared on the field during the team review, but the Lithuanian champions did not escape a defeat.
Although in the second half the "Kickers" were not particularly active and only created one chance after a mistake by former "Vilnius" defender Adrian Mrowiec, Kaunas could not equalize the score and lost the first friendly match in Germany 0-1.
Latvia U-21 0 - 0 "Šiauliai"
"Šiauliai": Lukovičs (Arlauskis); Juodeikis, Lunskis, Žukauskas, Kirchners; Butavičius, Lukoševičius, Oriol, Šilėnas (Garuckas), Timinskas (Strockis); Viktoravičius (Olišauskas).
On Thursday in Riga, a match took place between "Šiauliai" and Latvia's youth national team. The evenly fought match ended in a goalless draw 0-0. In the second half, the Latvians could not score a penalty kick against the excellent performance of the home team's goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis.
"Šiauliai" team coach Darius Magdišauskas said he was satisfied with the match: "The players played almost as I would like to see them play in the championship. Unfortunately, three legionnaires could not travel to Latvia this week due to visa issues, who have been training with the team."
In Riga, the "Šiauliai" coach met an old acquaintance Marius Verpakovskis. The most famous Latvian player and current "Šiauliai" coach played together ten years ago at Liepaja's "Metalurgs". Currently, Maris Verpakovskis is playing for the Spanish club "Getafe".
"Marius talked about the training process at the Spanish club, how they recover after matches. It was interesting to hear their work methods firsthand," - said D. Magdišauskas.
