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The Lithuanian national team - in deep trouble. After speaking about the victory in Liechtenstein, Raimondas Žutautas' students lost 0-2 and significantly complicated their chances to continue the fight for a ticket to the final stage of the European Championship.
This was the third consecutive failure of the national eleven, as they had previously lost twice to the planet's champion, Spain. This time the opponent was far from being as powerful, but our team conceded the first goal just 6 minutes into the game: Philippe Erne sent the ball into the net with an impressive strike from afar. Although the Lithuanians took control of the game and controlled the ball for a long time, and Darvydas Šernas hit the crossbar, another quick attack by the hosts ended with a second goal in the 36th minute.
This time, the unsuccessful right-back players of the Lithuanian national team invaded the penalty area shot was blocked by Michele Polverino, who defeated Ernestas Šetkus for the second time.
During the break, Žutautas made bold changes and put the leaders on the bench: Marius Stankevičius, who didn't perform very successfully in defense, and forward Tomas Danilevičius, were replaced with Tadas Labukas and Deividas Česnauskis.
Despite the promising start, with several Lithuanian attacks ending in dangerous passes from the edge of the field and inaccurate strikes, Liechtenstein showed that they can all play football nowadays and tactically destroyed Lithuanian attacks.
After Šernas' shot hit the crossbar again, our team failed to prove their superiority and lost deservedly.
Whether you like it or not, you have to remember the last qualifying cycle, where successful footballers also suffered a painful defeat in football province. That time, they lost to the Faroe Islands.
The next match Lithuania will play at home on September 2 against the same Liechtenstein team. Four days later, the eleven will go to Glasgow's "Hampden Park" stadium to clash with Scotland, and on October 11, they will finish the cycle with a home match against the Czech Republic.
Standings: (position, team, games played, wins, draws, losses, goal ratio, points)
1. Spain 5 5 0 0 15:5 15 2. Czech Republic 5 3 0 2 6:3 9 3. Scotland 4 1 1 2 4:5 4 4. Lithuania 5 1 1 3 3:8 4 5. Liechtenstein 5 1 0 4 3:10 3
Liechtenstein 2 - 0 Lithuania 7' [1 - 0] P.Erne 36' [2 - 0] M.Polverino
