© EuroFootball.com
After the seventh round of the "General Financing A lyga" match between "Sūduva" and "Atlantas", fksuduva.lt spoke with the coaches of both teams. The head coach of "Sūduva" Virginijus Liubšys said:
"There were two different halves. I don't know what we played in the first half. Not all players wanted to play today. In the second half, we made good changes and the team started to play as they know. I think we won deservedly. In the first half, everyone was looking at R.Ledesma, and he wasn't what we would like to see. Without him, the team revealed itself in the second half, started playing faster. A.Urbšys and T.Eliošius played very well in the second half. The second half was good, I want to thank the men for that," the coach said.
V. Liubšys noted that this month's schedule for "Sūduva" is very tense. "We will play nine matches in a month. Even in England, you don't play that much before Christmas. This will show how ready our team is. We are gradually moving forward, very tough matches with "Kruoja" await," he said.
After the match, the coach of the Klaipėda team "Atlantas" Romualdas Norkus said:
"We lacked mastery. I would like to congratulate the team from Marijampolė and their fans. The team gave them a lot of joy today, played beautiful football. We lacked quality and character the most. When there is not enough mastery, it can only be compensated with fighting spirit. We had neither. The team fell apart. The substitutions were also unsuccessful, did not strengthen the game. Some players who lost some stopped playing, but with a team like "Sūduva", you cannot stop," said the visiting team's coach.
R. Norkus also said that he is not satisfied with the players' desire to compete. "I would like to see a different kind of football. I would like to see that if a person is a little hurt, he still goes to the field and plays. We have many injured players. We have many players on the list, but there are some who have played 2-3 matches. And they are the "leading" players from whom we expect the most. Of course, the first half flattered a bit - the players played as we demanded, defended well, tried to attack quickly. If we had managed to "dig" the ball into the goal in the first half, maybe we would have played differently," pondered the "Atlantas" strategist.
Ričardas Beniušis, a forward of "Sūduva" who scored one of the team's six goals, spoke after the match:
"The first half may have been a bit unsuccessful, we got hell during the break, and in the second half, after 2 or 3 goals, "Atlantas" broke. Our physical readiness is better than "Atlantas". So far our game is fluctuating, not consistent."
