© EuroFootball.com
In the UEFA Cup this evening the remaining 29 second qualifying round matches will be played. Two teams from Lithuania will participate - Panevezys "Ekranas" will play against "Odd Grenland" in Norway, while Vilnius "Žalgiris" will host the club from Denmark "Aalborg".
(Starting at 20:00 Lithuanian time)
The opponent of Panevezys, "Odd Grenland", secured their place in the UEFA Cup last year by finishing fourth in the Norwegian league. This season, in the league which starts and ends similarly to Lithuania, things are not going so well for this Skien club - after 17 matches they have only collected 22 points and are in eighth place.
In the Lithuanian league, the country's vice-champion "Ekranas" is currently in the leading position, but "Kaunas" has lost fewer points up to now. Recently, the Panevezys team said goodbye to one of their main defenders, Egidijus Majus, who moved to St. Petersburg's "Zenit". However, two foreign players joined the team - Latvian defender Ruslan Michalčiukas from "Jūrmala", and forward Vitalijus Makrickis from Minsk's "Torpedo-Maz".
(Starting at 21:05, Live broadcast from 21:00 on Lithuanian television)
The stronger opponent likely falls to "Žalgiris": last season, "Aalborg" finished fifth in the Danish championship, losing in the cup tournament final to the country's champion "Kobenhavn", but securing the right to play in the European Cup tournaments. The new season in Denmark has just begun, and the team from the city of Aalborg is in eighth place after one win in three games.
"Žalgiris" occupies fourth place in the Lithuanian league, but suffered a massive defeat at home last Monday against Klaipėda's "Atlantas". New players are trying to integrate into the team, adding to the squad at the beginning of August, before the match against "Sūduva" - defender Adrian Kormoczis from a Czech third league club "Letohrad" joined, former Žalgiris player Raimondas Vilėniškis returned from Plock's "Wisla", and forward Maksimas Alilujevas transferred from Klaipėda's "Rodovita" to the Vilnius club a little earlier.
