© EuroFootball.com
Today (Wednesday) at 15:00 Lithuanian time the Lithuanian national team will play a friendly match against the national team of Malta.
On Monday, Lithuanians had a joint training session in Malta. Nerijus Barasa, who had just played for "Hearts" in Edinburgh, arrived directly from the game to the training. Coaches hoped that he wouldn't get injured in that game and could join the team in Malta. Their hopes were fulfilled, and after a long time missing from the national team due to injuries, N. Barasa joined the rest of the Lithuanian footballers a day before the friendly match against the Maltese national team.
The day before the arrival in Malta, it was raining heavily, so the stadium director did not allow the entire training to take place on the field, wanting to preserve it for the match. However, after warming up on the nearby field, the national team players split into two teams and played against each other for 10 minutes.
Malta welcomed the Lithuanians with good weather (temperature above 20 degrees Celsius), sun, and very good local hospitality.
According to the locals, the match should be really worth watching. The national team attracted a lot of attention due to their equal performance in the UEFA qualifying matches against the Italian national team.
Although the timing of the match is not favorable for football fans, according to the president of the Malta Football Federation, they wanted to play on the best field, even though it doesn't have lighting. Due to the latter reason, the match will start early at 14:00 (15:00 Lithuanian time). Around 300 spectators are expected at the match (ticket prices around 15 litas, children and women admitted for free to all football matches in Malta).
After an hour-long training session, the national team members traveled for several hours to Valletta.
The match against the Lithuanian national team is really important to us. Just the fact that you resisted against the world champions - Italy - speaks volumes about your national team. The difference is that football is the main sport in Malta. As far as I know, it is not the case in Lithuania, but I believe that your strengthening national team will make you focus on football in Lithuania. Although we are a small island, our hearts beat for football," said the president of the Malta Football Federation in his official statement.
It was also revealed that in the match against Malta, the position of the main goalkeeper of the Lithuanian national team will be taken by Paulius Grybauskas from "Ekranas". Coach A. Liubinskas justified his decision by saying: "Malinauskas has not fully recovered from his injury yet. We noticed that during national team training, and the player himself admits it. Grybauskas is currently in better physical shape."
A. Liubinskas added that the goalkeeper position is currently the biggest concern - although the national team has Z. Karčemarskas, it is necessary to have a backup in case the player gets injured or cannot help the team for other reasons.
"We want to try out other goalkeepers. We tried Klevinskas in Kuwait, we wanted to take Žutautas, but he has a metal plate on his way and cannot fully participate in matches, for example, to dive," said the coach.
The national team's strategist raised the issue that the country's clubs do not have specialized goalkeeper coaches. The German national team's goalkeeper coach Klaus Thomforde cannot prepare the goalkeepers very well in a short time, so, according to A. Liubinskas, the goalkeepers in the clubs should also work with specialists.
Talking about the goals of the match against Malta, A. Liubinskas outlined three - evaluate N. Barasa's form, prepare him for the qualifying matches, solidify the positions of young defenders D. Miceikos and M. Kalonas in the national team, and aim for a victory, as the goal is to attack Malta's goal, demonstrate an active game, and win.
A. Liubinskas rated the Maltese national team as "a team of a decent level." Malta won 1-0 against Hungary in the European Championship qualifying matches, but lost to Turkey and Bosnia. They still have matches against Greece, Moldova, and Norway ahead.
