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After the first leg of the UEFA Europa League knockout stage, where Panevezys "Ekranas" lost 0:2 to the Romanian team Bucharest "Steaua", the head coach of the team did not have any complaints for the players, he was disappointed only by the result and the situations from which the goals were scored.
Head coach of FK "Ekranas" Valdas Urbonas: "We knew we were facing a tough opponent, serious match, opponents with individually strong, technical players. The result is not good for us, but the quality of the game itself was not bad. The sign of a good, high-level team is the use of set pieces. It's a shame that they were not worth the goals, we could have defended against those situations.
I'm glad that the men tried until the very end, didn't give up. Not only did they defend, but they also tried to attack. Arsenijus Buinickij’s moment at 0:0, if we had scored a goal first, would have been a big plus for us.
Now talking about hopes of reaching the next stage is not worth it, let's look at the big picture. We simply have to prepare for the return match. We will play on their field, with a lot of their fans watching. Difficult match awaits.
It is difficult to reach higher stages, to get into group matches. Dreaming, wanting a lot is possible, but reality is different. We quickly learned that. Experience, success is needed.
"Ekranas" lost 2:0, not individual players. Victory and defeat belong to the whole team, not to individual footballers.
The opponents had to put in a lot of effort, I say, we also did not play poorly. Speaking about the opponents, we saw what we analyzed in the video recordings. More or less, that's what we expected from the Romanian team's game.
Tadas Kauneckas' gameplay should be evaluated normally, there were no mistakes, in two situations he saved the team, opponents could have punished us, and Tadas played impeccably and saved the team from conceding a goal. I assess his game positively.
The two wingers' formation transformed into a defensive setup when the opponents attacked, and we did not play with a two-winger formation, but with a "4-4-1-1", - the FK "Ekranas" strategist said at the press conference after the match.
