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In the first round of the Europa League qualifiers, the Vilnius "Žalgiris" football players took the lead twice, but were unable to overcome the Irish visitors. The favorites before the match, the Žalgiris team from Vilnius and the "Saint Patrick's Athletic" team from Dublin, played to a 2:2 draw.
After the draw in Vilnius, the fate of these teams will be decided equally in Dublin after a week.
At the beginning of the match, "Žalgiris" played more actively, and Mantas Kuklys took the first shot on goal, but the goalkeeper of the Irish club defended his goal.
In the 21st minute of the match, "Žalgiris" managed to take the lead. After a beautiful attack and a pass from Kamil Bilinski, Pavelas Komolovas scored a goal.
After playing for just over half an hour, Conanas Byrne had a great opportunity to equalize, but Armantas Vitkauskas defended his goal excellently and withstood the opponent's shot.
For the rest of the first half, the "Žalgiris" club played slightly better, but the Vilnius team failed to score a second goal before the break.
At the beginning of the second half, "Žalgiris" once again played more actively, but quickly "Saint Patrick's Athletic" took the initiative. In the 55th minute, the guests managed to equalize, when Conanas Byrne scored a goal after a failed defensive play and a goalkeeper's mistake.
After this goal, the "Saint Patrick's" team took over the initiative and pressured "Žalgiris" for a long time, whose game seemed disorganized. The coach of the Vilnius city team, Marekas Zubas, made several substitutions, which proved to be successful and improved the game of "Žalgiris".
In the 70th minute, "Žalgiris" managed to score their second goal, with the Polish player Kamil Bilinski as the scorer. After this episode, the Vilnius club seemed to be on top form and the leaders of the Lithuanian A League, "SMSCredit.lt A lygos", once again attacked the opponents' goal.
At the end of the match, the Dublin team recovered once again, and in the 87th minute they evened the score, with a precise shot by Geras O'Brienas. "Žalgiris" tried to snatch a victory, but the Vilnius club failed to do so and the match ended in a draw. It is worth mentioning that during extra time, the electricity went out at the LFF stadium, so the match ended in darkness.
