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After the failure against Scotland, the head coach of the Lithuanian national team, Algimantas Liubinskas, identified the main reason for the failure as the fact that the players did not have time to recover from the exhausting match against the world champion Italy.
"There were a lot of emotions and desires, but it's hard to say something. It wasn't our goals that fell, we usually didn't miss such simple ones. We didn't manage to recover from the previous matches, but you can't say the team didn't fight, we had to take the field with serious football 'novices' like Kalonas, Miceika, Tamošauskas, but their game didn't deteriorate the image," the coach stated.
"It's a pity we didn't score at the beginning of the match. As I said, we saw that the Scots are not a weak team. In the end, we revealed our backline by sending forward three forwards and midfielders. The match wasn't ugly, but luck was not on our side," regretted A. Liubinskas.
Asked why there were mostly high passes played, the Lithuanian national team's coach admitted that one of the reasons was also the quality of the pitch: "We have players like Danilevičius and Poškus who can score with their heads, moreover, the pitch was bad, at the beginning we tried to play ground passes, but the ball was bouncing too much. Later we did it more out of haste."
"What was mostly lacking? We don't have the physical fitness and skill. This was not the same as Mikoliūnas, not the same energy, as we lost we had to give experience to other players, and hope that they will change the course of the game. Perhaps replace the tired ones sooner. Poškus is out of shape, but he was useful in Italy because he attracted defenders. As you know, having played little at Zenit, he was rented out to Dynamo, and without playing matches in good form, he can't be. We tried Labukas, but he doesn't seem to be in good shape better than Poškus in worse form," admitted the Lithuanian national team's strategist.
Comparing Wednesday's match with the one that took place three years ago, A. Liubinskas, despite the negative result, saw some positive things: "Paradoxically, I can say that we played better now than three years ago, we tried to control the game. The second Scottish team was stronger, and the football itself was more interesting and both teams played at a high level.'
The last question discussed at the press conference with A. Liubinskas was related to the participation of the unregistered Panevėžys "Ekranas" forwards Povilas Lukšys and Vitalijus Kavaliauskas and the non-playing guard Deividas Česnauskas: "We did some medical tests and they showed that the 'Ekranas' players' indicators are poor, they are not in shape and are tired, including Savėnas and except Paulauskas. Meanwhile, Česnauskas has the disease spread throughout his body, doctors gave him medication and tried to cure him, but it didn't work, he has a serious inflammation. We didn't want to 'kill' the guy by letting him onto the field."
