© EuroFootball.com
On Thursday, FBK and Marijampolė will start their battles in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup tournament, where they will have to try to overcome the barrier of opponents from the British Isles - Kaunas vice-champions will play against "Portadown" from Northern Ireland, and the third-place team in last season's "A Lyga" from Marijampolė will meet the "Rhyl" club from Wales.
These opponents are already familiar to the Lithuanians - two years ago, Vilnius "Žalgiris" played against "Portadown" in the UEFA Cup, where the away match ended in a [link="http://www.eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=1248"]2-2 draw[/link], and later they won [link="http://www.eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=1372"]2-0 at home[/link] to advance to the next stage. At that time, the assistant coach of "Žalgiris" was the current head coach of "Kaunas," Eugenijus Riabovas.
Last year, Klaipėda's "Atlantas" had a tougher time playing against "Rhyl" - the Welsh team [link="http://www.eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=3442"]won 2-1[/link], but in the match in the Lithuanian port city, after a nerve-wracking battle, the Klaipėda team [link="http://www.eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=3565"]won 3-2[/link], but had to withdraw from the competition. Those matches were also notable because after the match, the then "Atlantas" coach Vacys Lekevičius attacked the opponent's goalkeeper Gerald McGuigan.
"Portadown" - "Kaunas" Kickoff - 21:30 Lithuanian time
Four-time Northern Irish champions "Portadown" finished third in the country's championship last season and has been preparing for the new season lately. In friendly matches, the semi-professional team played a 1-1 draw with "Rhyl" on July 1, then won 2-1 against Welsh champions "TNS" three days later, but in the last preparation match on July 8, they lost 1-2 to the lower league team "Comber Rec."
"Kaunas" demonstrated impressive gameplay in the Lithuanian championship this season, having only suffered one defeat in 20 matches and playing to a draw once. However, after coach Eduardas Malofejevas left the team, the performance was not as impressive - at the end of June, they narrowly won against "Žalgiris," lost at home to "Ekranas" on July 2, and on July 7 managed to defeat "Šiauliai" only after a tough battle.
"Many say that we are playing against a weak, semi-amateur club, but I do not evaluate our future opponents that way. We are going to a football country, while everyone comes to Lithuania as to a basketball country. I agree that "Rhyl" is a beatable opponent. The men understand this and are preparing responsibly for the match," said Algimantas Gabrys, head coach of "Sūduva," in an interview with "Futbolo ekspresas."
"Sūduva" coach saw the only match of "Rhyl" with "Atlantas" in Klaipėda, but he did not dare to evaluate the strength of the opponents solely from this video recording: "Atlantas" helped us, but in those matches "Rhyl" had to maintain the result at home, so it is unknown how they will play against us in the first matches. It was easy to see that they play a traditional, aggressive, English style of football, they lift the ball high. Although in those matches they needed to maintain the result, they almost did not keep the ball on the ground. Nowadays, nobody plays like that in Lithuania."
