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The Lithuanian national football team will start a training camp next week before the upcoming friendly matches with Poland and a crucial European Championship qualifier against the continent's champion Spain. "We will have an equal number of players on the field. If you don't believe - you won't win," - said optimistically the national team's strategist Raimondas Žutautas before the match with the Spanish stars.
Believing in your own strengths is important
On Thursday, at a press conference held at the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), Head Coach R. Žutautas emphasized that believing in your own strengths is important in the match against Spain on March 29 and not letting the opponents play their game. "We face a serious challenge with the world champions. We will certainly not give up beforehand and try not to let the opponents play, because if they easily control the ball, it will be difficult. Do we believe that we can achieve a victory? We will have an equal number of players on the field - we will play 11 against 11, not 13 against 11. If you don't believe - you will never win," said the strategist.
Looking for both young and experienced players
26 players have been included in the extended national team squad for these matches. Among them are several players who may return to the team after a longer break. According to R. Žutautas, this decision was made because there are two important qualifying matches ahead and replacements are being sought in case of disqualifications. "Seven players have yellow cards, so if someone were to receive a second card and be disqualified during the match against the Spaniards, there would be problems in the match against Liechtenstein. Experience will be needed in that match," said the coach.
He noted that the selection is not huge, so players are being sought among both young and experienced ones: "We are not as big a country as France, so we have to choose from what we have. We have once again invited experienced defender Tomas Žvirgždauskas and midfielder Tomas Ražanauskas, we invite Tadas Labukas after a couple of years' break, who constantly plays in the Polish championship. We are considering trying out young national team players Tadas Eliošius, Arvydas Novikovas, Vytautas Andriuškevičius, as well as Marius Papšys, who started playing in Czechia. We will see how these players perform, whether they are worthy of the national team."
