© EuroFootball.com
On Wednesday in Vilnius, the friendly preseason match was played by the footballers of "Vilnius" and "Šiauliai" at the "Sportima" arena. The victory was celebrated by the residents of Vilnius with a minimal result, and the only goal of the match in the first half was scored by Ramūnas Radavičius with a beautiful penalty shot from about 16 meters into the top corner of the goal.
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30` [1 - 0] Ramūnas Radavičius
"Vilnius", for whom this was the second friendly match this year, continued to test their legionnaires and had the initiative and territorial advantage for the majority of the match, but "Šiauliai" did well in counterattacks. However, the commendable safe play did not receive the necessary response from the attackers - the forwards often failed to receive excellent passes. This was supported by "Šiauliai" coach Saulius Vertelis, who spoke to the EuroFootball.com portal after the match.
"Gediminas Butavičius' form disappointed, apparently he had an unprofessional vacation, we need to have a serious talk with him, and we would most like to strengthen the attacking and defensive lines - the defenders play quite well, covering each other," - said Vertelis after the match.
"We really did not aim for a result in this match. Both "Vilnius" and us tried to play more," - said Vertelis. - "The Vilnius team controlled the ball better, but they not only play at "Sportima" but also train there, for us, it was the first time on the new turf."
The residents of Šiauliai, who began preparing for the season a week ago, spent most of their time preparing physically for these matches: playing in the snow, training outdoors and in the pool. In the near future, the Šiauliai team should play friendly matches with Vilnius "Žalgiris", "Šilutė", "Kaunas Jėgeriai", and at the beginning of February, they will spend two weeks in a camp in Palanga.
In these matches, the Šiauliai team also featured Belarusian Viktar Afanasenko and Saulius Butkus, who recently left Marijampolė's "Sūduva". Vertelis described the performance of these players concisely: "Nothing," but did not want to talk about their chances of playing in Šiauliai.
In addition to these footballers, there were a number of young players in the Šiauliai team during the tryout.
"I would rate their performance in a ten-point system with a five," - the coach said at the end of the conversation. - "To be frank, I thought it would be worse."
Starting lineup of Šiauliai: Arlauskis; Garuckas (right), Lunskis, Biečius, Oriol; Šidlauskas (right), Miklinevičius, Juodeikis, Šilėnas; Bulošas, Butavičius.
Starting lineup of Vilnius: Kijewskis; Tučinskis, Grudzinskas, Opalacas, Hajovskis; Lukša, Hanakas, Radavičius, Narvojsas; Oboloas, Psohlavecas.
After the break, Afanasenko, Butkus, and many young players appeared in the Šiauliai team, while the Vilnius team saw A.Semežas, P.Evertonas, G.Barbosa, A.Brazauskas, M.Kazlauskas, A.Mrowiek, D.Artiom, Prado, and Kinho.
