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During the weekend, the Intertoto Cup tournament kicks off with matches in European stadiums. In the first stage, Lithuania will be represented by two clubs from the capital city of Vilnius - "Vėtra" starts the tournament on Saturday with a match in Romania, while "Žalgiris" will play against a team from Northern Ireland at home on Sunday.
"Vėtra" only found out about their participation at the beginning of this month when it became clear that there were vacant spots in the Intertoto Cup and one of them was allocated to Lithuania. The club did not have time to strengthen before the tournament, and the team showed poor form, suffering four consecutive losses in the A league, even losing to "Ekranas" 0-8.
Such results were unsatisfactory to the club management, and defenders E. Lukoševičius and A. Borovskiy were dismissed from the team. However, reinforcements are only expected to arrive in July. The team is also without the injured N. Vasiliauskas and the out-of-form I. Douglas from Nigeria, so there are problems in attack.
"Vėtra's" opponent in the first stage is the Cluj club "CFR Ecomax", which finished 11th in the Romanian championship last week. The first match will start at 18:00 Lithuanian time on Saturday, with the return fixture in Vilnius on June 26.
Meanwhile, the former legendary Vilnius club "Žalgiris" is not performing very successfully in the Lithuanian championship, having already suffered 7 losses and currently competing for 4-8 places. In the last four games, "Žalgiris" won twice, drew once, and was crushed by "Ekranas" in the last match.
The "Žalgiris" team has been more successful than their neighbors - just like last year, in the European tournament they will face a team from Northern Ireland, this time it will be Lisburn's "Distillery", who finished seventh in the country's league a month and a half ago. The first match will take place on Sunday at 16:00 at the "Žalgiris" stadium, with the return match on June 25 in Northern Ireland.
