© EuroFootball.com
The Lithuanian national football team will start the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in Vilnius on Friday. Before the first match against the Slovak national team, the footballers Tomas Danilevičius and Darvydas Šernas assured that the scandal that rocked the Lithuanian Football Federation this week will not affect the team's sporting results.
"Everyone gathered in a good mood on Monday, trains, prepares, and thinks only about the upcoming match. We represent Lithuania, not the federation, so let them deal with their business," said striker T. Danilevičius.
"We are most interested in the ball and goals. How to score as many goals as possible against the opponents, rather than what happens behind the scenes of the federation, is our main focus," said D. Šernas, mockingly referring to the scandal surrounding the dismissal of LFF President Julius Kvedaras, which does not interest the players.
The opinions of the team's friends coincided on another issue - the first match must be won.
"It would be very good to win because we will play at home in a new stadium, our fans will support us. We will try not to disappoint them," said T. Danilevičius, who plays in the Italian Serie B.
The striker said that the artificial turf of the stadium does not scare him, as his club "Juve Stabia" also plays on a similar one: "Of course, players who have not seen such a surface before will find it harder. However, until Friday, we will have enough training, so everyone will adapt."
D. Šernas highlighted the strength of their future opponents in set-piece situations and mentioned their most dangerous player - Marek Hamšik, a leader of the "Napoli" club who played in the UEFA Champions League last season. T. Danilevičius added that the Slovaks love attacking football and can quickly transition from defense to counterattack.
"Our goal is victory. I don't know if we will try to dominate the midfield when they have M. Hamšik and Vladimir Weiss - the coach will choose the tactics. They also have a very dangerous and tall player, Marek Jakuba (194 cm tall), who can cause a lot of problems after set pieces," demonstrated D. Šernas.
According to the 28-year-old striker, qualifying for the World Cup is the biggest goal, but at the moment, they need to focus on the first win.
"We cannot say that our group is easy. Lithuanians do not have and cannot have easy or favorable groups. We have won against very strong teams, but lost to weaker ones, so we will have to fight everyone. Of course, it is good that we will not have to play against Spain, Italy, or England, but nowadays everyone knows how to play, so there will be no easy matches," said D. Šernas.
National team coach Csaba Laszlo also did not want to talk about backstage troubles. The coach emphasized that the players are in a great mood, and there is a good atmosphere within the team, so there is no need to spoil it.
"The most important thing is to show that we can win and do it," said C. Laszlo.
The match between the Lithuanian and Slovak national teams will take place on Friday at 21:45 at the LFF Stadium in Vilnius. Just a few days later, on September 11, the players will face the Greek national team away.
This year, the Lithuanian national team will play two more 2014 World Cup qualifier matches. On October 12 and 16, they will respectively meet the Liechtenstein and Bosnia and Herzegovina national teams away.
