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Saturday - a historic day in Lithuanian football. For the first time in the country, the European Men's U19 European Championship was held.
The match between Lithuania and the Netherlands footballers took place at the S.Darius and S.Girėnas Stadium. Unfortunately, the Lithuanians had to admit a painful defeat at the end of the match.
The first half began with a surge from the Dutch youth team. The hosts of the tournament had problems, but the guests were lacking a goal.
The first dangerous opportunity for the Dutch came in the 3rd minute when one of the opponent's attackers ran past the goalkeeper and shot straight towards the goal, but goalkeeper Tomas Švedkauskas demonstrated excellent play.
In the 7th minute, the Lithuanian team responded with a good chance. After a very successful run by Lukas Spalvis, the ball almost ended up in the goal, but the Dutch goalkeeper reacted well to the striker's shot.
Just two minutes later, the efforts of the Lithuanian youth team were not enough. In the 9th minute, after a great pass from a team mate, Anass Achahbar scored the first goal.
In the 16th minute, the opponents had a chance to double the lead when after a mistake by defender Lukas Čerkauskas, a Dutch footballer took a shot, but the ball flew past T. Švedkauskas' goal.
After conceding the goal, the Lithuanians could not create anything dangerous, and the visitors from the Netherlands controlled the game, although they failed to score.
However, already in the 29th minute, the Dutch achieved their goal. After a high pass, Anass Achahbar scored the ball into the goal again.
After the goal, the Lithuanians began to impose their game and took initiative, which resulted in a corner kick. After a very successful header, the team captain Lukas Artimavičius scored and revived all Lithuanian hopes of fighting for victory.
It is worth mentioning that in the first half, a forced substitution had to be made in the 20th minute by Antanas Vingilys, who replaced Lukas Čerkauskas with Rolandas Baravykas.
At the beginning of the second half, both the Dutch and Lithuanians played evenly. In the 48th minute, the hosts of the tournament created a great attack, but failed to score.
After one dangerous chance, the Lithuanians did not intend to stop and continued to successfully attack the opponents' goal. Donatas Kazlauskas managed to provoke a defender error and A.Vingilis' pupils earned a penalty kick, although the visitors defended well without much trouble.
Shortly after, the Dutch youth team regained the lead. They did not manage to score, but they controlled the ball for a long time and did not allow the Lithuanians to create dangerous counterattacks.
In the 78th minute, the Dutch created perhaps the most dangerous opportunity in the second half. By confusing several defenders, Brahim Darri shot towards T. Švedkauskas' goal, but the goalkeeper from "Roma" saved the Lithuanians from a goal.
In the 83rd minute, after coming on as a substitute, Gratas Sirgedas forced all the fans in the stadium to stand up. After a great run, he scored a beautiful goal into the Netherlands' goal.
However, at the end of the match, the Lithuanian youth team had to admit a painful defeat. After a lifted corner kick, Rai Vloet scored the winning goal.
Lithuania 2 - 3 Netherlands 9‘ [0 - 1] A.Achahbar 29‘ [0 - 2] A.Achahbar 38‘ [1 - 2] L.Artimavičius 83‘ [2 - 2] G.Sirgedas 90‘ [2 - 3] R.Vloet
Group A Standings: (Position, team, played, wins, draws, losses, goals, points) 1. Netherlands 1 1 0 0 1 3 2. Spain 0 0 0 0 0 0 3. Portugal 0 0 0 0 0 4. Lithuania 1 0 0 1 -1 0
