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Ambitious Vilnius, not hiding ambitious plans, whose defender Žilvinas Žudys today extended the contract with the club for another two years, continues to prepare for the new "A League" season starting on April 9. In an interview given to the official team website, the head coach Edgaras Gessas shared his thoughts on his first month of work in Lithuania, the country's football league, the team's lineup, and future plans. - You have been in Lithuania for a month now, what impression did our country leave on you? Have you visited Lithuania before? - I have been to Lithuania 4-5 times. I had the opportunity to visit Vilnius and stay by the sea - in Klaipėda and Palanga. I visited Lithuania during the Soviet era. Lithuania is a very pleasant country, with pleasant and sincere people. Since then, the country has changed and become even more beautiful, although it was very beautiful back then as well. Your country greatly respects its ancient history, and recently it has been highlighted even more. The unique beauty of Vilnius Old Town, churches, and cathedrals. - How do you evaluate the football league in Lithuania? - The football level is quite high, there are good and promising football players. The Lithuanian national team is interesting, with its own style. It is pleasing to see that there is a lot of promising youth in Lithuania. The conditions in Lithuania are quite good, but of course, they still lag behind Russia. I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities at "Vėtra". There is a good base and a great stadium. Everything is done for football. "Vėtra" has three high-quality pitches, so we have excellent conditions for training, which is very important for the team. The only drawback is that we do not have a base in the suburbs where we could hold short camps and gather all the players together. However, seeing the efforts and ambitions of the club's management to make "Vėtra" a high-level European club, I believe that the conditions for football will be ideal soon. I am very satisfied with everything in Lithuania. - How is the team's lineup going? What news can we expect? - I said when I arrived in Lithuania that I want to have as many local players in the team as possible. Currently, the most important thing is to gather our own players who will form the core of the team and then select good foreigners who will fit into the team. I repeat, we will rely on local players, and only the best foreigners will be selected to strengthen the team. From the legionnaires who participated in the trial, we have Moldovan national team player Iulian Bursuc, Latvian Olegas Boikovs, and Russian Konstantin Talancev left. - What plans do you have for the upcoming season? - We will spend most of February in Cyprus. There, the team will have excellent conditions. For three weeks, we will be able to train on high-quality pitches. In Cyprus, we plan to play four friendly matches against strong opponents. More legionnaires will also arrive in Cyprus, who will participate in the trial. In March, we plan another training camp, probably in Poland, to have conditions similar to those we will play in Lithuania. The next "Vėtra" matches against Minsk "Darida" will take place on February 8 in Vilnius, at the "Sportimo" arena. We invite all "Vėtra" fans to watch these matches.
