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During this season, Vilnius "Žalgiris" reached the fourth round of the Intertoto Cup and ended their European journey with a crushing defeat in Romania, where they lost 1-5 to Cluj's "Ecomax" team and withdrew from the tournament.
Now, "Ecomax", the most successful Romanian club in the Intertoto Cup and one of the surprises of the new season, will face the winner of the "Wolfsburg" and "Lens" pair in the final for a spot in the UEFA Cup.
Cluj's "Ecomax" 5 - 1 Vilnius (First match 2-1, total result 7-2) 9' [1 - 0] Cosmin Tilinca 43' [2 - 0] Vasile Jula (penalty) 49' [3 - 0] Ambrozie Coroian 56' [4 - 0] Alin Minteuan 72' [5 - 0] Adrian Anca 80' [5 - 1] Andrius Jokšas
In the first leg of the Intertoto Cup semifinals in Vilnius, "Ecomax" won 2-1, so in the second leg the "Žalgiris" players needed to win to advance to the next stage, but they had to do it with a depleted squad - several main players of the Vilnius team could not play due to injuries, disqualifications, and other reasons.
The task became even harder in the ninth minute of the match when one of the tournament's top scorers, C. Tilinca, scored a precise goal past goalkeeper M.Malinauskas. Two minutes before the end of the first half, a penalty was awarded against "Žalgiris" for a foul on Tilinca, which V. Jula converted, practically shattering the Lithuanian team's hopes.
The unsuccessful first half seemed to crush the Žalgiris players even more, who in the second half conceded the third goal after four minutes, the fourth after seven minutes, and later the fifth goal. However, in the 80th minute, A. Jokšas scored a consolation goal for the legendary Lithuanian club - Vilnius' team suffered a heavy defeat in Romania.
Nevertheless, "Žalgiris" still made history in Lithuanian football as the furthest Lithuanian club to compete in European tournaments. Starting their participation in the Intertoto Cup in mid-June, Žalgiris defeated teams from Northern Ireland, Latvia, and Greece in almost two months and became the last Lithuanian club to leave continental cup competitions this year.
