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The coach of the Lithuanian national team, Csaba Laszlo, after the draw with Slovakia, claimed to be satisfied with the team's performance. According to the specialist, Lithuanians played against a strong opponent, so a draw is not a bad result, but the hosts could have celebrated a victory based on the course of the match.
"We earned one point at home, but these were the matches we should have easily won. We were leading 1-0, but later made an individual mistake. Nonetheless, we are a team, so we do not blame any single player," said the Hungarian. "Slovakia is a strong team individually, but I am proud of my players because the opponents did not have very good opportunities. The eleven played very disciplined.
"When we gained a quantitative advantage, we attacked dangerously several times: Mikoliūnas, Labukas, Šernas did that. So a draw against a team like Slovakia is not bad, but I am a little disappointed because we could have won."
He added: "Having a numerical advantage, we definitely put pressure on the opponents, the game was going in one direction. Of course, we could not lose focus, because the Slovaks have world-class players and can punish us for that. We controlled the game, but failed to score more than one goal."
In this match, veteran Tomas Danilevičius did not appear on the field. This decision was made by the coaching staff due to the player's injury, which will make him leave the national team camp.
"Danilevičius suffered a minor muscle injury during the last training session. I talked to him, he said it would be better for him to stay on the sidelines because he couldn't be 100 percent ready on the field. We decided that he will return to Italy: we have to think about his future in the club," he said.
Laszlo saw a bright perspective for the national team: "This is a new team. We have experienced players like the Česnauskas brothers, Žaliūkas, Šemberas, and others. Others are much younger. Arvydas Novikovas performed well, I am satisfied with his performance after coming on as a substitute. I think the future is bright. I hope we will give this team a new face and win more than one match out of eight, as it was before."
On September 11th, the Lithuanian team will travel to Greece for the second round of qualifiers: "A draw in Greece would not be a bad result. However, we will aim for a victory."
