© EuroFootball.com
In the Lithuanian "A Lyga" championship, four matches of the 9th round took place on Saturday. The league leader "Ekranas", who didn't lose any points in the first round, ended with their ninth victory, "Šilutė" defeated "Vėtra" at home, "Sūduva" played a draw with "Žalgiris", and the absolute underdog "Nevėžis" lost 0-8 to "Kaunas".
"Ekranas" hosted "Šiauliai" in Panevėžys, and for the fourth consecutive match, they defeated their opponents with a minimal margin. The winning goal that allowed the residents of Panevėžys to finish the first round of the championship without stumbling even once was scored by V.Kavaliauskas.
In the battle for the title of champions, "Kaunas", who played more matches, is trailing by six points. Despite being considered an away team, they crushed the bottom of the league, Kėdainiai's "Nevėžis", with a result of 8-0 at their home stadium. A.Velička scored three goals for the team, T.Tomašauskas scored twice, and D.Sanajevas, I.Zelmikas, and A.Rimkevičius each scored once.
A surprise came from the team of "Šilutė", who defeated Vilnius "Vėtra" at home. The hosts were led forward by coach S.Česnulis in the 11th minute, and almost an hour into the game, the team's attacking leader G.Juška doubled the lead and secured victory for Šilutė.
The most intense match took place in Marijampolė, where local team "Sūduva" led against Vilnius "Žalgiris" after T.Radzinevičius' goal, but in the middle of the second half, A.Osipovičius equalized the score. Therefore, both teams shared a point and remain in seventh and sixth positions respectively.
As usual, the latest round of matches took place at the "Žalgiris" stadium - "Vilnius" met with Klaipėda's "Atlantas" and unexpectedly defeated them by a minimal margin. The only and winning goal was scored by N.Astrauskas, from the Vilnius club that has been unproductive this season.
Round 9 statistics
2 - 0
11' [1 - 0] Svajūnas Česnulis
59' [2 - 0] Gvidas Juška
1 - 0
29' [1 - 0] Vitalijus Kavaliauskas
1 - 1
25' [1 - 0] Tomas Radzinevičius
67' [1 - 1] Aleksandr Osipovič
0 - 8
15' [0 - 1] Tomas Tamošauskas
28' [0 - 2] Darius Sanajevas
33' [0 - 3] Andrius Velička
48' [0 - 4] Irmantas Zelmikas
64' [0 - 5] Andrius Velička
66' [0 - 6] Artūras Rimkevičius
67' [0 - 7] Tomas Tamošauskas
75' [0 - 8] Andrius Velička
1 - 0
49' [1 - 0] Nerijus Astrauskas
