The Lithuanian national team is facing today the general and most difficult rehearsal before the 2016 European Championship qualification matches starting in autumn.
Our team's opponents in Gdansk will be neighboring Polish footballers, who are determined to seek revenge for the failures of recent years.
The tricolor remained hanging
The Lithuanian footballers trained at the impressive Gdansk "PGE Arena" stadium on Thursday evening. The stadium has almost 44,000 seats.
Two years ago, four matches of the 2012 European Football Championship were played here. Now "PGE Arena" is the third largest stadium in the country and the largest where "Ekstraklasa" matches take place.
While Lithuanians were training, a small curiosity occurred, which could be considered a good sign for us - the flags, which were hanging high, fell down torn by the wind, leaving only the Lithuanian tricolor in its place.
"After a long journey, it was still not easy to train, but I hope it will be better on match day," said defender Gediminas Vičius. "Everyone knows that the Polish national team is strong, has many stars. But we will strive to fight for victory, to showcase our game."
Knows opponents personally
For several Lithuanian national team players, the match against the Poles will be crucial - many of our footballers have played in this country's championship before.
"I had to play with several players together, in one club. I know defender Thiago, midfielder Kamil Grosicki. Against others, I had to play as a rival," said former Balstoge's "Jagiellonia" and Kelc's "Korona" defender Tadas Kijanskas.
It is expected that on Friday almost 32,000 spectators will support the Polish team at the stadium. It was here in Gdansk that the Poles won their last victory at home last August. The last matches in Warsaw and Wroclaw were unsuccessful - two losses and two draws.
"The Poles will want to play as best as possible in front of their own audience, however, this is the last friendly match before the qualification cycle. Both teams will want to do their homework and tasks at the stadium," said T. Kijanskas.
Poles do not cross the Lithuanian barrier
The history of mutual matches, consisting of friendly matches, is not favorable to us - out of 9 matches fought, we have won 2 and drawn 3. However, in recent years, the Poles have not succeeded in defeating Lithuanian teams.
In 2006, the Lithuanian national team won an unexpected victory of 1-0 in Belchatow, in 2009 the match in Portugal ended in a draw of 1-1, and three years ago in Kaunas Lithuanians fought against the Poles and won 2-0. At that time, one of the goals was scored by the current senior team member Saulius Mikoliūnas.
For football fans, this victory is deeply ingrained in their memory in European cup matches. The Vilnius "Vėtra" and "Žalgiris" clubs presented surprises here in 2007 and 2013 and eliminated Poland's giants "Legia" from Warsaw and "Lech" from Poznan from the competition. Last year in Vilnius, Mantas Kuklys scored a winning goal against "Lech".
The match between the Polish and Lithuanian national teams will be played today at 18:30 local time. The live broadcast of the match will be available on the internet on DELFI.lt and Futbolo.TV websites.
LFF
