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Today only one participant of the LFF Cup semi-final was determined - it was Klaipėda's "Atlantas", which unexpectedly for the second time defeated the cup holder team "Kaunas" in Kaunas and advanced to the next stage of the tournament, while the other second leg quarter-final match between "Vilnius" and "Žalgiris" was postponed to a later time due to poor weather conditions.
Kaunas artificial turf field
Referee - Vijūnas Vasiliauskas
FBK 0 - 1 Klaipėda
(First leg 0-2, aggregate score 0-3)
26` [0 - 1] Donatas Navikas
"Kaunas": Malinauskas; Radžius, Zelmikas, Kančelskis, Manchkava; Ivaškevičius, Žaliūkas, Pilibaitis, Fattakhov; Juška, Velička.
"Atlantas": Valius; R.Maciulevičius, D.Žernys, Ramonas, E.Žukauskas; Bartkus, Navikas, Petreikis; Trakys, Žvingilas, Laurišas.
To beat "Atlantas" and overcome the two-goal deficit from the first leg, the defending cup champions "Kaunas" needed to win by at least two goals. However, the team's task was further complicated by the absence of head coach Eduardas Malofejevas who, according to club officials, fell ill and returned to his homeland for treatment, temporarily replaced by assistant coach Eugenijus Riabovas.
Meanwhile, the club from the port city, supported by about ten fans who arrived from Klaipėda, could still not field several foreign players such as Andrius Gedgaudas, Darius Žutautas, and Edvinas Lukoševičius, as they were not registered in time for the LFF Cup competition.
In the middle of the first half, the guests from Klaipėda dashed all hopes of the Kaunas team to advance further - in the 26th minute Donatas Navikas scored with a header. After conceding a goal at home, the "Kaunas" team needed to score four times, but the disorganized hosts were unable to break through the opponents' defense.
The match ended with a narrow victory for "Atlantas", which eliminated last year's cup winners "Kaunas" and secured a ticket to the cup semi-finals for the port city club.
"I am very happy that we reached the semi-finals. We were under psychological pressure because there were various rumors circulating before the match between 'Atlantas' and 'Kaunas'. There were those who knew who would win, who would sell. The men denied all the rumors," said V.Lekevičius officially to the "A Lyga" website.
Places in the semi-finals have already been secured by the country's champions "Ekranas" and "Sūduva", while the winner of the pair "Vilnius" and "Žalgiris" will be determined on May 17th.
