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After a 2-0 victory at home against Marijampolė's "Sūduva", Panevėžio "Ekrano" head coach Valdas Urbonas was pleased with his team, which he said played the best match of the season on Wednesday evening.
FK "Ekrano" coach Valdas Urbonas: "We played a good match, both in terms of the final result and the three points won. I think these were our best games this season. It's great and very important that the best match was against "Sūduva", a truly equal opponent."
The first half was a bit cautious from both sides. We waited for each other's mistakes: both we had a moment, and "Sūduva" had a moment. It was like a spy game with attempts to sting. In the second half, it would be fair to agree with my colleague - the scored goal helped give the players an additional emotional boost. Then the second goal allowed us to release the tension and it really felt like we wouldn't let go of the victory today. Everyone worked patiently and we truly deserved the three points, now we just have to celebrate a beautiful victory. It's important, especially knowing that lately "Sūduva" hasn't had the best results, they have lost points. I think they also prepared seriously for this match. The most important thing is what we showed," said V. Urbonas at the press conference.
"Let's organize a game, bet oracles, when will "Ekranas" concede a goal now, suggest it to the oracles," the coach joked in response to the question of whether the team would not concede goals in the second half. "I think the essence is to set up the team, the game, we try to perform both defensive functions and attack equally well. Of course, it's good that we didn't concede.
Regarding the nature of G. Tomkevičius's injury, I can't answer now, the diagnosis is not made so quickly. It's probably a muscle strain, and how serious it is, we'll see later.
The execution of defensive functions starts with the attacking line, with the attackers, the midfielders, they do a lot of black, not always noticeable work. Also, Aurimas Kučys's game is very important. The defensive line is solid, and Y. Urdinov plays as we want to see. And of course, Emilijus Zubas. It's also quite challenging for him, as during the matches there are two or three shots towards our goal. He must be prepared for that situation. He had a very good season last year when he debuted in the first team. Today he once again proves to everyone that his skill has grown.
FK "Sūduva" head coach Virginijus Liubšys: "I think they deservedly won. They played better in the second half. I think in the second part of the match, before the goal, "Ekranas" scored a good goal. After that, they took the initiative, quickly followed by another goal, and the match was decided.
The first half of the match was not bad, we followed the plan. There were a few good counterattacks, especially Povilas Lukšys's one-on-one breakaway. If we had scored, everything would have been different. But they are champions, as "Ekranas" does not forgive such mistakes. They took advantage of the opportunities we had and won deservedly.
Regarding Ledesma, I don't want to answer why he left the field in the second half. I think he is now exhausted.
It is very difficult to transition from an artificial pitch, where you play for 3-4 months, to natural grass fields. The first 2-3 weeks are never good. We could not win against "Reo", we had many chances. Today was not "Reo", but another team that has been the country's champion four times in a row.
Whether "Sūduva" is in a rut is not easy to answer, maybe psychologically - yes. We have twelve, thirteen players, "Ekranas" has a long bench, a certain character that always forces them to seek victory regardless of the conditions. That's what differentiates us from them. Congratulations to the opponents on the victory. V. Slavickas strained a muscle and could not continue the match. He is very important to us. I repeat, we only have 13 players. It seems that this marathon of matches should be in our favor. We are a younger team, but in terms of experience, this benefits "Ekranas"."
