© EuroFootball.com
Lithuania's national and youth teams flew to Spain for the World and European Championship qualifying matches against the team of this country. Before departing, a press conference was held at Vilnius Airport, attended by the coaches of both teams and LFF president L.Varanavičius.
Starting the conference, LFF president first recalled a previous trip to Spain when Lithuania lost 5-0, then mentioned much more successful moments in the last team duel, and assured that efforts are being made for the match to be televised on Saturday.
TV3 plans to broadcast the matches between the Lithuanian and Spanish national teams on June 4 at 22:30, but the television does not have the rights to broadcast the match yet because an agreement has not been reached with the Spanish team.
"The Lithuanian team will do everything they can. In September, we already showed our true face, so we definitely worry Spain's team. On the other hand, I would like to say that we are doing everything we can so that Lithuanian football fans can see these matches, but so far we have not been able to reach an agreement on the broadcast," - said Varanavičius.
Returning to football matters, national team strategist A.Liubinskas said that his players are ready to fight, but injuries of the players caused concern to the coach - A.Skarbalius definitely cannot play, there are still hopes for E.Jankauskas, doubts about R.Poškaus with a pulled muscle, T.Danilevičius has a groin issue, and D.Česnauskis is not fully ready.
"The most important thing is for the team to be determined. For example, A.Skarbalius has an injury, but still travels and wants to support his team. D.Česnauskis said yesterday that he is not ready to play. That worries me. Such talk before such important matches should not happen. We need to be united," - said A.Liubinskas.
The coach noted that this time, due to injuries and disqualifications, we will see new faces in the national team and various options are being considered: "This time we will introduce new players to the team - we have no choice. Indeed, Stankevičius is greatly missed, we need to think about who could replace him, there may be different options. New players like Paulauskas, Kučys, Laurišas, and even Klimavičius could appear on the field."
"The most important matches in the qualifiers? I think the most important matches are the upcoming ones, and we need to prepare for them. It will definitely not be a task just to defend, that would be disastrous. Of course, the Spaniards will do everything to win - this is a critical moment for them, they must win and earn 6 points in the next two matches. In turn, we would like them to earn only four," - this is how Liubinskas talked about his hope to snatch the draws.
One day before the national teams' match, on June 3 at 22:00 local time, a youth (up to 21 years) team meeting will take place in the small town of Ontinyent in the Valencia region.
Youth team coach Vitalij Stankevičius will miss only the injured T.Tamošauskas from the invited players, and our players D.Navikas, M.Žaliūkas, E.Majus cannot help either. After a long break from official competitions, a "changed" M.Kalonas, who now plays in Latvia, has returned to the team, according to the coaches.
"We trained in Kaunas and got stronger. Of course, the situation is different now than before the other matches - the men have already played, the season in Lithuania has started, so I believe in their game. The goal is not to lose and achieve a positive result," - said V.Stankevičius.
