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On Tuesday, in the final group stage matches of the Confederation Cup, Lithuanian vice champions FBK "Kaunas" footballers had to settle for a draw of 1-1 with Soligorsk's "Shakhtar" from Belarus, but that was enough for the Lithuanian team to advance to the tournament quarterfinals.
FBK 1 - 1 Soligorsk "Shakhtar" (Belarus) 45` [1 - 0] Tadas Papečkys 90` [1 - 1] Maksim Gukailo 80` Anatoli Budaev ("Shakhtar"), 83` Mindaugas Pacevičius ("Kaunas") sent off.
"Kaunas" lineup: E. Kurskis; T. Kančelskis, N. Radžius, M. Bagužis, M. Žaliūkas; E. Pehlic, N. Manchkhava, K. Ivaškevičius, T. Papečkys; L. Pilibaitis, R. Beniušis.
The Lithuanians started the match more successfully - they took the lead after Tadas Papečkys' goal at the end of the first half. In the second half, the "Kaunas" footballers, among whom came on as a substitute Andrius Velička on Monday, defended securely, and only at the end of the match did "Shakhtar" score a consolation goal.
After these draws, FBK "Kaunas" finished first in Group D. The second place and also advancement to the quarterfinals went to Yerevan's "Pyunik" from Armenia, who on Tuesday lost 2-1 to the unbeaten Russian U-19 team. Meanwhile, "Shakhtar" had to settle for third place.
In the quarterfinals, the Kaunas team's opponents will be the Moldovan champions Sheriff from Tiraspol, who finished second in their group. In Group C, the situation became complicated - all teams collected the same number of points - "Sheriff" lost out on first place to Donetsk's "Shakhtar" based on head-to-head results and goal difference, and surpassed Ashgabat's "MTTU," who had been leading until then.
