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The head coach of the Lithuanian national football team, Csaba Laszlo, after the Baltic Cup match with Estonia, stated that these games were more for experiments and the conclusions drawn will help them move forward.
Defender Mindaugas Panka said that the experience of international matches will benefit young players, debutant Mantas Kuklys mentioned that a poor start influenced the course of the match, and goalkeeper Saulius Klevinskas noted that the team felt fatigue.
Lithuania's national team head coach Csaba Laszlo:
"I believe that we made progress after the last match. I am just disappointed that we did not take advantage of two excellent chances to score. At international level, such chances must be taken. Improving our chance conversion is something we need to work on. I think we are on the right path, but we also need to identify the reasons for failure. We could have avoided the goal we conceded in the 18th minute. Young players should be more aggressive both on and off the ball, attacking the space where they can pose a threat."
"We need to change all these things in the future. I know everyone wants to win every match, even if they are friendly. But for me, the most important thing was to get to know the team better, so we can move forward and correct our mistakes. In friendly matches, we can see who wants and is ready to fight for their national team. That's where my focus was during the Baltic Cup tournament."
"The match against Russia was different. We were very focused and demonstrated our game. The other two matches, with all due respect to the Baltic Cup tournament, were more for experiments. We need to try as many players as possible who have not played for the national team and test them at the international level. Today we lost 0-1, it always hurts to lose 0-5, but I believe both matches will help us move forward, not backward. That is the most important thing."
"I don't want to talk about referees, but hosts should respect guests, their neighbors. If it is possible to invite referees from Finland, Latvia, or another country, there is no need to appoint Estonians. Today there were some interesting decisions. But that is also a lesson for the players. Even with one player less, we had the best chance when we failed to score from three meters. We had opportunities to equalize the score, and it's a pity we didn't."
Lithuania's national team defender Mindaugas Panka:
"It's a shame because we wanted to bounce back from the match against Latvia - show a better game and first of all achieve a positive result. It didn't work out. Maybe we will succeed in the match against Belarus in a few days. The opponent was beatable - if things had gone better, if we had taken our chances, we could have won."
"It was evident that the referees favored the Estonians, but we won't change that. We need to focus on our game and improve it. The result is negative, but every player on the field tried. I think such international competition experience will be beneficial for young players and help them play better next time."
Lithuania's national team debutant defender Mantas Kuklys:
"I think at the beginning of the match, we were a bit scared, made a tactical mistake. The Estonians played with two forwards, maybe our defensive midfielder should have dropped deeper. If we hadn't made that mistake and hadn't conceded the goal, perhaps the game would have gone differently. I would evaluate the game positively, we played decently. It's a pity we couldn't score. I had a good chance myself. The match wasn't bad, but it's disappointing because of the result."
"The Estonians didn't play real football, they just kicked the ball forward to their powerful forwards, who fought well for high balls. We tried to play football, but they succeeded in scoring and winning."
Lithuania's national team goalkeeper Saulius Klevinskas:
"There was both fatigue and a moral blow after the last match with the Latvians. Psychologically, it was not easy. Being rated as the best in the team doesn't make me happy at all. I would rather be the worst and we would have won. We need to bounce back in the next matches."
