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VMFD "Žalgiris" team sports director Mindaugas Nikoličius speaks favorably about the UEFA Europa League fourth qualifying round draw.
On Friday, it was revealed that in the final step towards the tournament group stage, the Žalgiris team will face the Red Bull team from Salzburg. The first match will be played in Austria on August 22, with the second leg taking place in Vilnius on the 29th.
According to Žalgiris' sports director M. Nikoličius, the wealthy Austrian club is very strong, but its defeat is not impossible, as proven by several teams with much smaller budgets.
"There are no weak opponents in this stage. We can fight and strive for our goal of entering the tournament group matches against the Zalcburg team. We will try to give Lithuanians a historic victory.
"Red Bull" is the richest club in Austria, with a budget of about 40 million euros. Compared to the Poznan "Lech" club, this is twice the amount. However, looking back at history, in the 2011 Europa League group matches, the Poles won both games against each other," M. Nikoličius emphasized.
"We are more mature now than last year, when we failed to overcome the Austrian team Admira Wacker's barrier. Since then, our footballers have made significant progress and visibly improved.
This year, we started from the first qualifying round, gained a lot of European-level competition experience, and gained additional confidence in our abilities, allowing us to create wonders.
Salzburg will face great pressure against Žalgiris. The situation is similar to the one with the Lech team. Our opponents must move forward, and we can simply do it. A club backed by the Red Bull group since 1993 cannot afford to lose.
However, looking into the past, the Salzburg team has disappointed in matches against weaker teams multiple times. It is enough to remember last season when the Austrians were eliminated from the Champions League qualifying round by the Luxembourg team Düdelange F91," Žalgiris' sports director justified his words with facts.
Our goal is to return from Austria with a result that would allow us to fight for entry into the group matches in Vilnius. An away goal, a draw - would allow us to control our destiny.
"Red Bull" plays their home matches in a great, new stadium with a capacity of over 30,000 spectators. At the moment, it is difficult to say what the interest in the match will be in Austria. It might be that we play in a full stadium, but we could also play in an empty one," M. Nikoličius said.
