© EuroFootball.com
On Tuesday, four matches of the 14th round of the A League championship were played, which, like the hot weather prevailing in Lithuania, were "dry" - only three goals were scored and they were scored by two teams that played away, "Sūduva" and "Šilutė", while both matches between "Vilnius" and "Ekranas" and "Atlantas" and "Žalgiris" ended goalless.
In order to not fall behind further after the victory against "Vėtra" on Monday, the defending champions "Ekranas" needed to defeat the "Vilnius" team. However, under the leadership of interim coach Ivan Švabovičius, the capital team has not lost or won a victory yet, and this time continued the tradition of a match ending in a draw after a fierce battle. After these matches, "Ekranas" is now ahead of "Kaunas" by 14 points, while "Vilnius" dropped to 8th place.
Four players could not represent "Ekranas" in this match - defender Arūnas Klimavičius had to miss the game due to accumulated cards, goalkeeper Mindaugas Gardzijauskas did not play due to injury, foreign player Sergejus Pogrebanas was dealing with a visa, and team captain Mantas Savėnas went for a trial at the "Moskva" club.
"The match was difficult. It was evenly matched, so the result is fair. However, towards the end of the game, our forward Povilas Lukšys had a good opportunity to score a goal, but he did not take advantage of it," said the head coach of "Ekranas", Virginijus Liubšys, to alyga.lt.
According to him, it was difficult for the teams to play on a poor field: "Since we did not have four players, we had to rearrange the game. Beating Vilnius is not easy, and with this team, the leader Kaunas lost points."
Marijampolė's "Sūduva" moved up to 7th place, and after a few unsuccessful games, had the opportunity to recover and defeat the championship's outsider, Kėdainiai's "Nevėžis". The "Sūduva" team, which defeated the opponents by a score of 2-0, scored goals through defenders Karolis Jasaitis and Darius Maciulevičius.
In an unexpected second consecutive victory, the "Šilutė" team, which was climbing from the bottom of the tournament table, celebrated as guests - inspired by the previous round's victory against "Žalgiris", the team from Šilutė triumphed by a score of 1-0. Mindaugas Grigalevičius, who appeared as a substitute in the 53rd minute, scored the winning goal for "Šilutė".
"Our victory was determined by the good performance of goalkeeper Laurynas Vertelis and the chosen tactics. We gave the initiative to the opponents and counterattacked. This brought a positive result. Mindaugas Grigalevičius saved us by scoring the goal. It can be said that luck was on the side of Šilutė," said the head coach of the "Šilutė" team, Svajūnas Česnulis, officially to the A League website.
According to him, the Šiauliai team had opportunities to equalize, especially towards the end of the game: "The match could have ended in a draw. I am most pleased with the result. I am very satisfied with the team's fighting spirit, they are showing an increasingly better game."
Meanwhile, the match between Klaipėda's "Atlantas" and the struggling Vilnius "Žalgiris" ended peacefully, so the coastal club maintained the third place in the league table, while the Žalgiris team, who played fewer games, equalized in points with "Šiauliai" and now occupies the fifth position.
Statistics of Tuesday's matches:
Vilnius "Žalgiris" stadium, 300 spectators Referee - Edmundas Gaigalas 0 - 0
"Vilnius": Kijewski; Sokolovas, Mrowiec, Artiomovas; Lukša, Panka, Everton, Ražanauskas (80` Grudzinskas), Rinaldo; Muller (84` Radavičius), Adilson
"Ekranas": Skrupskis; Paulauskas, Banevičius, Skroblas; Petrauskas (46` Galkevičius), Kučys, Tomkevičius, Michalčuks; Kavaliauskas, Lukšys, Varnas (78` Saulėnas)
Kaunas S.Darius and S.Girėnas stadium, 50 spectators Referee - Gediminas Mažeika 0 - 2 45` [0 - 1] Karolis Jasaitis 72` [0 - 2] Darius Maciulevičius
"Nevėžis": Strukas; Dobilas, Slepakovas, Valančius, Venckus; Kestenis, Rimavičius (85` Rokas), Smilginas (46` Daunoravičius), Mykolaitis, Činikas; V.Stankevičius
"Sūduva": S.Klevinskas; D.Čigladze, Grigas (35` Sagna), Samusiovas, B.Čigladze; V.Slavickas (59` G.Slavickas), Miklinevičius, Jasaitis, Maciulevičius, G.Klevinskas; Cordeiro (70` Adomaitis)
Šiauliai city stadium, 900 spectators Referee - Vijūnas Vasiliauskas 0 - 1 56` [0 - 1] Mindaugas Grigalevičius
"Šiauliai": G.Arlauskis; Lunskis, Juodeikis, S.Galyuza (79` Strockis), Lapeikis; Afanasenka, A.Šidlauskas, I.Galyuza, S.Butkus (46` D.Arlauskis), Atigbiolaye (72` Oriol); Butavičius
"Šilutė": L.Vertelis; Mockus, Nesterenko, Juozaitis, Z.Butkus; Papečkys, Petrenko (46` Mačiulis), Kižys (78` Andriekus), Gražys; Podelis, Rimkevičius (53` Grigalevičius)
Klaipėda "Žalgiris" stadium, 350 spectators Referee - Viktoras Chileckis 0 - 0
"Atlantas": Valius; Žernys, E.Žukauskas, Sulejmanovič (46` Žvingilas), Lukoševičius; Navikas, Gedgaudas (61` Petreikis), Morozov, Bartkus; Trakys, Poliakov (17` Laurišas)
"Žalgiris": Šetkus; Gražiūnas, I.Steško, Aleksa, Rukštelė; Lemežis, Miliškevičius, Poderis, Puotkalis; Morinas, Labukas
League table
