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Today, Wednesday, the head coach of the Lithuanian national team Algimantas Liubinskas announced an expanded squad for the 2006 World Cup qualifying matches that will take place at the beginning of September.
The national team football players will gather for training camp in Vilnius on August 29th before the upcoming matches. On the same day, the team will have an evening training session at the "Vėtra" stadium in Vilnius.
The team will fly to Serbia Montenegro on September 1st. The national teams of Lithuania and Serbia Montenegro will play in Belgrade on September 3rd, with the match beginning at 21:30 Lithuanian time.
After returning from Serbia Montenegro, Lithuanian players will continue their training camp in preparation for the important qualifying matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina. These matches will take place in Vilnius at the "Vėtra" stadium on September 7th at 20:00. Tickets, priced at 30 or 50 litas, are available for purchase through the bilietai.lt network.
This means that, apart from the match against Spain last year, the national team will return to official matches in the country's capital after a five-year break during which they only played at Kaunas S.Dariaus and S.Girėno stadium.
According to LFF president Liutauras Varanavičius, both the national team players and coaches expressed their desire to play in Vilnius.
While the Lithuanian youth team will play their European Championship qualifying matches one day before the national team- the match against Serbia and Montenegro will take place away on September 2nd at 17:30 local time, and the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Kaunas S.Dariaus and S.Girėno stadium will kick off on September 6th at 19:00. A ticket for this match will cost 5 litas.
In the expanded list of the Lithuanian national team by A.Liubinskas, the only new face is Andrius Gedgaudas, who has returned to the team after starting the season poorly with "Kaunas" and will now represent the Russian Tomsk "Tom" team. The list also includes "Ekranas" striker V.Kavaliauskas, but he is likely to play for the youth team. The team also includes M.Stankevičius, who received a red card, while T.Žvirgždauskas, T.Danilevičius, and R.Poškus will miss the first match against the Serbs due to disqualification.
Expanded list of the Lithuanian national team:
Goalkeepers 1. Žydrūnas Karčemarskas, 24/05/1983 ("Dynamo", Moscow, Russia) 2. Gytis Padimanskas, 13/05/1972 ("Sūduva")
Defenders 3. Aurelijus Skarbalius, 12/05/1973 ("Brondby", Denmark) 4. Rolandas Džiaukštas, 01/04/1978 ("Saturn", Moscow region, Russia) 5. Andrius Skerla, 29/04/1977 ("Dunfermline", Scotland) 6. Gediminas Paulauskas, 27/10/1982 ("Ekranas") 7. Arūnas Klimavičius, 05/10/1982 ("Ekranas") 8. Darius Žutautas, 30/09/1978 ("Alania", Vladikavkaz, Russia) 9. Marius Stankevičius, 15/07/1981 ("Brescia", Italy) 10. Tomas Žvirgždauskas, 18/03/1975 ("Halmstads", Sweden)
Midfielders 11. Saulius Mikoliūnas, 02/05/1984 ("Hearts", Edinburgh, Scotland) 12. Deividas Šemberas, 08/09/1978 ("CSKA", Moscow, Russia) 13. Nerijus Barasa, 06/01/1978 ("Krylia Sovetov", Samara, Russia) 14. Deividas Česnauskis, 30/06/1981 ("Hearts", Edinburgh, Scotland) 15. Edgaras Česnauskis, 05/02/1984 ("Dynamo", Kyiv, Ukraine) 16. Aidas Preikšaitis, 15/07/1970 ("Vėtra") 17. Mantas Savėnas, 27/08/1982 ("Ekranas") 18. Andrius Gedgaudas, 18/09/1978 ("Tom", Tomsk, Russia)
Forwards 19. Edgaras Jankauskas, 12/03/1975 ("Hearts", Edinburgh, Scotland) 20. Tomas Danilevičius, 18/07/1978 ("Avellino", Italy) 21. Robertas Poškus, 05/05/1979 ("Zenit", Saint Petersburg, Russia) 22. Tomas Radzinevičius, 05/06/1981 ("Sūduva") 23. Dmitrijus Guščinas, 12/12/1975 ("TuS", Koblenz, Germany) 24. Igoris Morinas, 21/02/1975 ("Žalgiris") 25. Vitalijus Kavaliauskas, 02/07/1983 ("Ekranas")
Head coach - Algimantas Liubinskas Assistants - Valdas Ivanauskas and Raimondas Statkevičius
