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The head coach of the Lithuanian national team, Algimantas Liubinskas, today announced a list of players who will travel to Moscow for friendly matches with the Russian national team.
The matches will take place on August 18th at the "Dinamo" stadium in Moscow. Kick-off at 18:00 Lithuanian time.
"These are the last friendly matches before the World Cup qualifying matches. I want to emphasize that the Lithuanian national team played against significantly stronger opponents, so our ranking in the tournament standings has dropped. Our goal was to play against stronger rather than weaker opponents - we want to prepare for the upcoming qualifying matches. The Russian national team is a strong opponent for Lithuania, they are the 16th team in Europe, while Lithuania is only 116th in the world," said team coach Algimantas Liubinskas.
The coach also mentioned the changes that will be made in the team lineup: "We will see some new faces in the team - we want to try out Darius Žutautas, it is likely that A. Kučys will also appear in the team lineup. It is also concerning that A. Skarbalius will not play in the main lineup due to injury. D. Vencevičius and I. Morinas cannot find clubs, so they will also not be in our team in Moscow," said A. Liubinskas.
In preparation for the friendly matches with the Russian national team, the LFF received another player's refusal to play for the Lithuanian team. The player who plays for the leader of the Russian championship team showed no desire to play for the country's national team and sent a request not to invite him.
Out of the 20 selected players, two will not travel to Moscow, and the final list will be revealed only on August 13th. The team will gather in Moscow on August 18th, where they will have two training sessions.
Composition of the Lithuanian national team:
Goalkeepers: 1. ("Kallithea", Greece) 2. (Moscow "Dinamo", Russia)
Defenders: 3. (Vladikavkaz "Alania", Russia) 4. (Riga "Skonto", Latvia) 5. ("Halmstads", Sweden) 6. ("Dumfermline Athletic", Scotland) 7. ("Brondby", Denmark) 8. ("Moscow", Russia) 9. ("Brescia", Italy)
Midfielders: 10. (Moscow "Dinamo", Russia) 11. (Kiev "Dinamo", Ukraine) 12. (Moscow "Dinamo", Russia) 13. ("Trelleborgs", Sweden) 14. (Moscow "CSKA", Russia) 15. ("Kaunas") 16. ("Kaunas") 17. ("Ekranas")
Forwards: 18. ("Porto", Portugal) 19. (Samara "Krylja Sovetov", Russia) 20. ("Livorno", Italy)
