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The Lithuanian U-16 (born in 1996 or younger) national team on the second day of the international "UEFA Development" tournament defeated Belarusian footballers 1-0 and took third place. The winning goal was scored by Daniel Romanovskis from a penalty kick with seven minutes remaining.
"We implemented our plans, fought until the end, and achieved our goal," said national team coach Vytautas Vaškūnas.
Tactical plan succeeded.
The Lithuanians were more active from the start of the match and created more dangerous attacks, but were unable to break through the opponent's defense in the first half. The Belarusian goalkeeper blocked a couple of our shots, while a few others were off target.
"We bounced back psychologically after losing the penalty shootout and today we implemented the ideas and tasks we had set before the match. We had analyzed that the opponent's wings were not strong, so our full-backs were tasked with playing high, while our midfielders made long passes to the third season. There were quite a few of such attacks in the first half," analyzed V. Vaškūnas.
Demonstrated fighting spirit.
In the second half, the teams intensified their actions in attack. Tomas Dombrauskis had a great chance early in the half after breaking through a couple of opponents, but his shot was saved by the goalkeeper. Skirmantas Rakauskas also missed another chance after a precise Lithuanian counterattack.
The Belarusians also threatened our goal - once after a free kick, the ball ricocheted off the crossbar. With seven minutes remaining, our attacks bore fruit - the opponents fouled Edvinas Puzara in the penalty area and D. Romanovskis converted the penalty kick.
The boys showed good energy, fighting spirit. We fought until the end and achieved our goal. In my opinion, today we were better than the opponents and also managed to get the result," said V. Vaškūnas - "I would like to commend Tomas Dombrauskis, he really stood out today. Having such a leader is very important for the team."
Modeling the game.
V. Vaškūnas said they didn't dwell on the Wednesday's defeat against Estonia and added that the most important thing is to learn from mistakes: "In this tournament, all teams were equal. It's better to lose in such a friendly tournament and feel that pinch, and then do a mistake analysis. We are modeling our game, we have a concept and we want to implement it in friendly matches."
In preparation for the U-17 championship qualification matches taking place this fall, the Lithuanians will continue their training from May 29 to June 5 in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they will participate in the international Caspian Cup tournament.
Match statistics
U-16 Lithuania - U-16 Belarus 1:0 Goal: 73 min. Daniel Romanovskis (Lithuania)
Lithuania: Edvinas Gertmonas, Ernestas Pečiulis, Justas Adamas (62 min. Laimonas Jurevičius), Domantas Šimkus (62 min. Daniel Romanovskis), Skirmantas Rakauskas (78 min. Martynas Zaleckis), Ainas Bareikis (62 min. Artur Skuratovič), Lukas Pupšys, Vilius Drazdauskas (52 min. Edvinas Puzara), Donatas Šėgžda, Tomas Dombrauskis, Benas Spietinis. Substitutes: Deividas Šalaševičius, Tomas Keršulis, Edvinas Puzara.
