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In the Latvian championship on Saturday, a duel between the leaders took place - in Liepaja, the local team met to defend the title of "Virsliga" winners and the current leaders. The reigning champions, coached by Benjamin Zelkevicius, celebrated a crushing victory and maintained hope of catching up and surpassing their opponents.
After the loss of "Ventspils" against "Daugavpils Dinaburg" at the end of September, "Metalurgs" had a real opportunity to catch up with the long-time leaders in the championship. However, in the 23rd round match, the Liepaja team unexpectedly lost away to "Jurmala" club. In the 24th round, "Ventspils" also lost to "Jurmala", and "Metalurgs" took advantage of this by securing a victory and reducing the gap.
Following this, both leaders secured victories - "Metalurgs" squad, along with Tomas Tamosauskas scoring his first goal of the season, but in the postponed 13th round match on Wednesday, Zelkevicius' team failed to beat "Dinaburg" and complicated their situation.
Therefore, in the leadership duel, it was necessary for the team from the coast to win. The hosts started the match more actively and, after playing just over half an hour, they were led to victory by the forward Darius Miceika, who scored from close-range after Arturas Rimkevicius' shot and scored his 11th goal of the season in the league. Just before the break, receiving a great pass from Tom Tamosauskas, Girts Karlsonas doubled the lead for "Metalurgs".
In the 56th minute, Oskaras Klava scored from long range, and in the 73rd minute, the rout was completed by Kristapas Grebis, who scored his fourth goal. The match ended with an impressive 4-0 victory for "Metalurgs". Throughout the match, D. Miceika played, A Rimkevicius until the 55th minute, T. Tamosauskas until the 77th minute, Mindaugas Kalonas remained on the bench, while Nerijus Astrauskas and Vadimas Petrenka were not registered for the match. On the other hand, from the 61st minute, Deimantas Bicka played for the losing team, and Igoris Stukalinas did not participate in the match.
This victory allowed "Metalurgs" to reduce the gap from "Ventspils" to four points with two rounds remaining, but the Liepaja club has played fewer matches and can still hope to maintain the intrigue until the end of the championship. In the 27th round, "Ventspils" will face Rezekne's "Dizvanagi" at home, who has only won two points this season, so if "Metalurgs" continues to win, the fate of the champion could be decided by the final round match between "Dinaburg" and "Ventspils".
The third position was secured by Ryga's "Skonto", who snatched the win against "Dizvanagi" in the last minute, while Daugavpils' "Dinaburg" secured fourth place by winning the derby against "Ditton". Meanwhile, "Jurmala" with Gintaras Stauce lost to "Riga" as visitors and will probably have to settle for a fight for 5-6 places.
League table (Position, team, games played, games won, drawn, lost, goals, points) 1. Ventspils 26 18 4 4 44-20 58 2. Metalurgs 25 16 6 3 59-18 54 3. Skonto 26 15 5 6 51-18 50 4. Dinaburg 26 12 4 10 30-33 40 5. Ditton 25 9 7 9 29-28 34 6. Jurmala 26 10 4 12 32-33 34 7. Riga 26 5 4 17 20-52 19 8. Dizvanagi 26 0 2 24 10-73 2 Top scorers 1. Mihails Miholaps ("Skonto") - 14 goals 2. Girts Karlsons ("Metalurgs") - 13 3. Jurgis Kalns ("Jurmala") - 12 4. Darius Miceika ("Metalurgs") - 11
