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The Lithuanian national team began preparing for next year's selection matches with a setback - Algimantas Liubinskas' team, not the strongest composition, lost to the local team in a friendly match in Kuwait.
Kuwait 1 - 0 Lithuania 10' [1 - 0] Fahad Al-Hamad
Lithuania: Klevinskas; Alunderis, Žaliūkas, Zelmikas, Paulauskas (62' D.Žutautas); Kavaliauskas (46' Gedgaudas), Miceika, Savėnas (70' Beniušis), Kalonas; Morinas (83' Tamošauskas), Labukas
Almost all key players representing foreign clubs could not help the Lithuanian national team in these matches - only Vidas Alunderis, representing a club in Poland, Irmantas Zelmikas representing a club in Ukraine, and three defenders from the Lithuanian legion of Liepaja's "Metalurgs." The national team's goal was first defended by the young goalkeeper of Marijampole's "Sūduva," Saulius Klevinskas.
With the temperature nearing 30 degrees Celsius, the teams began the match actively, and already in the third minute, the Lithuanian guests created a dangerous opportunity, but after a pass from Mindaugas Kalonas, Igoris Morinas failed to keep the ball in the field. In the sixth minute, the hosts launched a dangerous attack, but their pass did not reach the target, and soon the Lithuanians responded, but Tadas Labukas also failed to close the pass from the flank.
Kuwait gradually took over the initiative, and although Nawaf Al-Mutairi's long-range shot was inaccurate in the beginning, in the 10th minute after a beautiful pass into the penalty area, Fahad Al-Hamad broke through, and his shot, deflected off I. Zelmikas' leg, changed direction and beat S. Klevinskas into the goal.
In the 18th minute, S. Klevinskas saved Nohayr Al-Shamari's shot, but as the first half progressed, the game calmed down, and both teams struggled to approach the opponent's goal. The Lithuanians failed to create dangerous attacks, but in the 36th minute, they almost equalized when M. Kalonas' shot from the penalty area flew just past the Kuwait goal.
Before the break, the hosts had opportunities to double their lead, but one penalty shot was slightly off target, and in the last minute of the first half, after confusion in the Lithuanian penalty area, a weak shot from a Kuwait player ended up just wide of S. Klevinskas' goal. The first half ended with the Asian team leading by a minimal margin.
In the second half, the Lithuanians' game did not change much, and although the team managed to take the initiative slightly, Mantas Savėnas was the only one to threaten the opponent's goal a couple of times with shots from a distance, hitting the goalkeeper once and missing high once.
After playing for just over an hour, N. Al-Shamari took a shot, and in the 66th minute, the Kuwait forward broke through on the flank but his shot was not very successful and did not cause major problems for S. Klevinskas. The Lithuanian national team had the best chance in the 70th minute to repeat the winning goal combination from this year's friendly match in Poland - Darius Žutautas cleared the ball from the sideline and Andrius Gedgaudas was left unmarked in front of the goal after T. Labukas' header, but the shot by the Lithuanian national team's defender with his head was off target.
Soon after, the hosts responded with a very dangerous attack, but F. Al-Hamad's strong shot was well blocked by G. Klevinskas. In the 82nd minute, M. Kalonas' long-range attempt was off target, and a minute later the Lithuanians failed to score with a header after a free kick, Kuwait responded with a couple of weak shots on the Lithuanian national team's goal, and Vidas Alunderis had perhaps the last chance, but his powerful long-range shot flew just over the goal.
Nevertheless, due to numerous inaccurate passes, the Lithuanians failed to mount a serious assault on the opponent's goal, so the result remained unchanged - the inexperienced Lithuanian team lost to the Kuwait national team on the road in a friendly match, which lags behind our FIFA national teams' ranking, but proved that they can play, as they unexpectedly beat the Australian team 2-0 away a month ago.
This was the first match this year in which Algimantas Liubinskas' players did not score a goal - the last time the Lithuanians did not score was in the World Cup qualifying matches against Serbia and Montenegro in October 2005. In November, a meeting is planned in Malta for the national team, in December a three-match tour in Saudi Arabia, and official matches will only be played by our team at the end of March 2007.
