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On Friday, at the Kaunas artificial turf arena, the second friendly match was played between the Lithuanian youth national team (up to 21 years old) and the Latvian youth team. Lithuanians could not take revenge for their defeat on Wednesday, and the match ended in a draw 1-1.
U-21 Lithuania 1 - 1 Latvia U-21
31' [0 - 1] Vitalijs Smirnovs
44' [1 - 1] Aurimas Vertelis
Both goals were scored before the break. In the 31st minute, Latvian defender Vitalijs Smirnovs scored, and the Lithuanians managed to equalize just before half-time. This was done by Aurimas Vertelis, a goalkeeper for Vilnius side "Vėtra" reserves.
In the second half, neither team was able to score.
"Our national team is very young. You can count the total number of training sessions on one hand. The weak point of the Lithuanian team is that footballers under 20 do not play in the 'A league'. Only three footballers - Andrius Bartkus, Marius Činikas, Robertas Vėževičius - regularly play for 'A league' teams," said Saulius Širmelis, head coach of the Lithuanian youth national team, to alyga.lt.
"Of course, I expected better results in both matches. It's not worth talking about a good game on Wednesday, but the Latvians didn't look better either. Until the missed goal the day before yesterday, our guys had an advantage, but after the opponents scored, the game of the Lithuanian team fell apart. It's good that today it didn't happen after the missed goal. The boys fought, they tried. They still lack everything - physical fitness, technique, better thinking on the field," said the Lithuanian strategist.
"We didn't play according to the 4-5-1 scheme for no reason: after Maksim Danilov got injured, there was only one striker left in the team. It's nice that playing with one striker we created a chance to score and were closer to victory. I was very pleased with the play of the full-backs and the striker. After the match, I thanked the boys for showing strong character," said Genadijus Šitiko, head coach of the Latvian youth national team.
