© EuroFootball.com
The Lithuanian national team earned their fifth point in the World Cup qualifying tournament - in an away match, Csaba Laszlo's players played to a 1-1 draw against Slovakia.
Interestingly, the first meeting of these teams in Vilnius ended with the same result.
In the first half, the match was evenly played - although the Slovaks tried to take the initiative at the beginning of the game, in the 19th minute, Mindaugas Kalonas deceived two opponents and left the ball to Darvydas Šernas, who scored a great goal from about 14 meters.
Although the Lithuanians maintained the advantage almost until halftime, in the 40th minute the Slovaks managed to equalize the score: after Saulius Mikoliūnas unsuccessfully cleared the ball, Martin Jakubko scored with an acrobatic shot from close range. Lithuanian attempts to convince referee Michael Oliver that the opponent had handled the ball beforehand were unsuccessful.
After halftime, the hosts took the initiative, but failed to capitalize on the fact that our main national team goalkeeper, Žydrūnas Karčemarskas, had suffered an injury. Giedrius Arlauskis, who appeared on the field in his place, unsuccessfully returned the ball to play several times, but in the middle of the half, he impressively blocked a shot with his head from Jakubko and maintained the balance.
The Lithuanians also had a chance to break ahead again, but after a great run by Arvydas Novikovas on the right flank, Darvydas Šernas sent the ball wide of the target.
As the duel approached its end, the desperate attempts of the Slovakian team to snatch victory were in vain: the Lithuanians defended reliably and preserved a satisfactory result.
Slovakia 1 - 1 Lithuania 19' [0 - 1] D. Šernas 40' [1 - 1] M. Jakubko
