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The Lithuanian national team suffered their first defeat in the qualification tournament for the 2014 World Cup. Csaba Laszlo's players lost 0-2 to the Greek national team in Piraeus.
The Lithuanians spent most of the game defending, as seen in the photo by AFP.
On this occasion, the Hungarian specialist found room on the field for two nominal forwards: Darvydas Šernas and Andrius Velička, but the frequent mistakes of the latter in delivering passes may lead to the search for new tactical solutions.
The hosts had the initiative from the start of the match, while the Lithuanians had to wait for opportunities for quick counterattacks. Unfortunately, they failed to create any real goal-scoring chances throughout the whole 90 minutes.
Despite their efforts, the Lithuanians managed to resist in the first half. Although the relatively small striker Theofanis Gekas was left unmarked in the penalty area several times by defenders Marius Žaliūkas and Arūnas Klimavičius, his lack of accuracy kept Žydrūnas Karčemarskas' goal safe.
The Greeks scored both goals in the second half. After the break, the Greek team's game was energized by the appearance of striker Konstantinos Mitroglou on the field. He posed a constant threat, and finally managed to beat the Lithuanian goalkeeper with a powerful shot.
Despite the Lithuanian defense, Greece continued their attack, and Sotiris Ninis eventually scored the second goal for the hosts.
After this episode, the Lithuanians tried to gain control of the game, but the hosts remained more aggressive in attack. The Greeks celebrated a convincing victory, leaving the Lithuanian national team's coach with the task of searching for the reasons behind the fragile defense and sluggish offense.
Greece 2 - 0 Lithuania 55' [1 - 0] S.Ninis 72' [2 - 0] K.Mitroglou
Greece: Orestis Karnezis; Vasilios Torosidis, Nikos Spiropoulos, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Kyriakos Papadopoulos; Konstantinos Katsouranis, Alexandros Tziolis, Ioanis Maniatis (46' Konstantinos Mitroglou), Sotirios Ninis; Konstantinos Fortounis (69' Jose Holebas), Theofanis Gekas (80' Charalampos Mavrias);
Lithuania: Žydrūnas Karčemarskas, Egidijus Vaitkūnas, Marius Žaliūkas, Arūnas Klimavičius, Valdemar Borovskij (46 min. Deividas Česnauskis), Edgaras Česnauskis, Deividas Šemberas, Gediminas Vičius, Saulius Mikoliūnas, Darvydas Šernas (56 min. Artūras Rimkevičius), Andrius Velička (76 min. Arvydas Novikovas). Substitutes: Ernestas Šetkus, Ramūnas Radavičius, Tadas Kijanskas, Vytautas Andriuškevičius, Karolis Chvedukas, Deivydas Matulevičius, Georgas Freidgeimas, Vaidas Slavickas.
