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In the international "UEFA Development" U-16 tournament in Vilnius, the Lithuanian youth national team recovered from a missed goal in the match against Estonia, but lost in the penalty shootout.
"We were too tense, especially in the first half. But we fought until the end and could have won, penalties are like a lottery," said national team coach Vytautas Vaškūnas.
Tight beginning
In the first half, our team had territorial advantage, but failed to finish attacks dangerously. The guests from Estonia played on counters and scored a goal in the 27th minute with forward Frank Liivak playing in the Netherlands. Lithuanians had two good chances, but after a very dangerous pass from the side, our players did not reach the ball, and in the 38th minute, Arturas Skuratovičius did not manage to hit the target in a one-on-one situation.
Pressed the opponents
After the break, Lithuanians picked up the pace and visited the opponents' goal more frequently, until finally in the 68th minute, Donatas Šėgžda broke into the penalty area and scored. During the main time of the match, our team continued to press the opponents, but failed to score - 1: 1.
"We talked in the locker room during the break, adjusted the game a bit, started pressing higher. The boys' fighting spirit was really good and they were aiming for their goal. We had half-chances and tried to resolve the match before penalties, but ran out of time," said V. Vaškūnas.
One mistake in the penalty shootout
According to the tournament regulations, penalties were taken immediately. The Estonians started the series and scored all five times, but one shot from Tomas Dombrauskis was saved by the goalkeeper - opponents won 5:3. "Penalties are like a lottery. Although the teams scored quite accurately, luck was on the opponents' side," said the Lithuanian coach.
According to him, this tournament models team play for qualifying matches, but they are not playing as they would like: "There were quite a few mistakes in simple situations. As I mentioned, we were too tense. Probably the boys burned out from too much desire. The Estonian game was simpler, they used their powerful striker with long passes. On the other hand, we didn't make gross mistakes either and could have won."
In the tournament final on Friday, Estonia will face the Latvian team, which beat the Belarusian footballers 2:0. The latter team will compete with the Lithuanians on Friday at 12 noon for the third place.
Match statistics
Lithuania U-16 - Estonia U-16 1:1 Penalty shootout 3:5 Goals: 65 min. Donatas Šėgžda (Lithuania), 27 min. Frank Liivak (Estonia)
Lithuania U-16: Edvinas Gertmonas, Rimvydas Sadauskas (61 min. Ainas Bareikis), Ernestas Pečiulis, Laimonas Jurevičius (80+2 min. Daniel Romanovskij), Lukas Pupšys, Domantas Šimkus, Donatas Šegžda, Skirmantas Rakauskas, Tomas Dombrauskis, Edvinas Puzara (61 min. Vilius Drazdauskas), Artur Skuratovičius (53 min. Tomas Keršulis). Substitutes: Deividas Šalaševičius, Martynas Zaleckis, Justas Adamas.
