© EuroFootball.com
On Wednesday evening, the match between the two capital city teams "Polonija" and "Žalgiris-3" in the first league of Lithuania Football Federation (LFF) at the stadium in Vilnius did not go without incidents. As the second half was coming to an end, a firecracker was thrown onto the pitch from the "Polonia" fan sector. It burned a significant hole in the artificial pitch of the stadium.
"The pitch will need repairing. I cannot say how much time it will take - so far, I have not been able to reach the person responsible for the stadium from the Lithuania Football Federation. I don't know if I am mistaken, but in my opinion, for a stadium where national team and high-level matches are played, we will need to change the entire track," said Vilma Venslovaitienė, executive director of Vilnius City Football League "Žalgiris" who witnessed the incident.
The head of "Žalgiris" could not confirm if the stadium will be ready for the Europa League fourth round match between "Žalgiris" and Austria's FC "Salzburg" on August 29th.
"I think if LFF has such a track, it will be fixed quickly, but I cannot guarantee that everything will be in order by the Europa League matches," said Venslovaitienė.
More than half of the tickets for the "Žalgiris" and "Salzburg" match have already been sold.
Before the match against the Austrian team, the "Žalgiris" and "Bangos" from Gargždai will meet in the A League championships at the stadium on August 25.
On Wednesday, there were more "Polonia" supporters than ever before. Not all of them were from Vilnius. There were also hardcore fans from Poland: "Lomža" and Warsaw's "Polonia" fans, as well as fans from Belarus: "Lida" ultras, who consider themselves not Belarusians, but Poles. They all came to support the Polish club, and some even escalated tensions (at least the "Polonia" fans' Facebook page was full of threats to Lithuanians). Large police forces, which have never been seen at any first league match, deterred them from attempting violence, but were unable to prevent pyrotechnics from being thrown onto the pitch.
Several "Polonia" fans were detained.
"The incident really upset me, but it is what it is. The most important thing is that the culprit has been caught, as the police told me. He is detained for two days. And he will have to compensate for all damages," said VMFD "Žalgiris" manager.
The "Polonia" ultras form their ranks on a national basis. They maintain connections with nationalist or even chauvinistic fans of all clubs in Poland.
Despite political provocations in Vilnius and Poznan, the fans of "Lech" have a good relationship with the Vilnius fans. They supported "Lech" not only in Vilnius during the match against "Žalgiris", but also specially traveled to Poznan.
The Wednesday match ended with a 1:0 win for "Polonia" players.
Stadium view after the incident: (zalgiris-vilnius.lt photo).
