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On Saturday, the 12th round matches of the "A League" will be played. The most interesting duel should take place in the temporary capital city, where the championship leaders "Kaunas" and "Vilnius" will meet, in other matches "Žalgiris" will host "Šilutė", "Ekranas" - "Atlantas", "Interas" will play against "Šiauliai", and "Vėtra" will clash with "Sūduva".
The first round match will take place in the capital city, where "Žalgiris" will face "Šilutė". Among the ranks of Žalgiris, the injured goalkeeper Ernestas Šetkauskas and defender Virmantas Lemežis will be missing. The first meeting between these teams ended in a goalless draw 0-0.
In the next round match in Panevėžys, "Ekranas" will meet "Atlantas". We will not see Alfredas Skroblas among the ranks of the Panevėžys team, who has collected 4 yellow cards, meanwhile, the Klaipėda club will be without the injured Darius Ramonas and Ivo Begičius, and defender Jelenas Pokornas will not be able to play due to accumulated cards.
The leaders of the "A League" "Kaunas" and "Vilnius" will settle their differences in the temporary capital. In this match, a defender Tadas Gražiūnas, who has been recovering from a long-term injury, may appear among the ranks of the Vilnius team. The first encounter between these teams ended in a 2-2 draw.
Before the upcoming match, "Vilnius" coach Antanas Vingilys spoke modestly: "We are focused, we are preparing very seriously for these matches. We will try to play as well as possible."
Officially, on the "Kaunas" website, the assistant coach of the Lithuanian national team, Vitalijus Stankevičius, predicted that "Kaunas" will win the leaders' match.
"Kaunas" has a forward Ričardas Beniušis who constantly scores goals in their ranks. This pleases us, the national team coaches. Lately, "Vilnius" game has worsened. Already during the match with the capital city's "Vėtra", I noticed that "Vilnius" looked worse than in the first round. The defeat to "Ekranas" just confirmed that," said V. Stankevičius.
Visaginas' "Interas" will play against "Šiauliai" in Vilnius. The Šiauliai team will have to do without the injured Deivydas Lunskis, Andrejus Oriolos, and Donatas Strockis in this match, and it is also unclear whether David Arlauskis will be able to play. A serious reinforcement for "Interas" should be Nerijus Astrauskas, who recently debuted for the team and scored two goals in the last match against "Šilutė".
In the last round match, "Vėtra" will host "Sūduva". After another defeat in the "A League", the Vilnius coach Aleksandras Tarchanovas removed Nerijus Sasnauskas and Julius Raliukonis from the main lineup, the team will also be without the injured goalkeeper Vaidas Žutautas and Almir Sulejmanovičius, who is already training individually, it is unclear whether Vitalis Stankevičius, recovering from a finger injury, will be able to play.
In the lineup of "Vėtra", Darvydas Šernas, Dejan Milošeskis, and Bobis Božinovskis, who played in the Baltic League match on Tuesday, have already returned. However, the latter is likely to start from the bench in the match against "Sūduva". In the first match between these teams, Marijampolė's team celebrated a 1-0 victory.
12th round matches
"Žalgiris" - "Šilutė" Vilnius, 15:30
"Ekranas" - "Atlantas" Panevėžys, 18:00
"Kaunas" - "Vilnius" Kaunas, 18:30
"Interas" - "Šiauliai" Vilnius, 19:00
"Vėtra" - "Sūduva" Vilnius, 19:00
