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On Saturday in Vilnius and Ventspils, matches of the Baltic Football League were played. Lithuanian clubs had different outcomes: vice-champions Panevezys "Ekranas" lost 3-0 to Latvian champions "Ventspils" in Ventspils, while Vilnius "Zalgiris" played a goalless draw against Latvian vice-champions Liepaja "Metalurgs" at the "Sportima" stadium.
"Zalgiris" 0 - 0 "Metalurgs"
55` Raimondas Vilėniškis ("Zalgiris") sent off
"Zalgiris": Šetkus; Choruži, Steško, Ngapunu, Aleksa; Bursuc, Vilėniškis, Poderis, Lemežis; Morinas (89' Puotkalis), Mižigurskis (90' Romašovas).
"Metalurgs": Spole; Zirnis, Klava, Ivanovs, Surnins; Kečs, Petrenko, Tamošauskas, Kalonas; Astrauskas, Karlsons.
Very interesting matches took place in Vilnius, where Arminas Narbekovas' coached "Zalgiris" met with his former coach Benjamin Zelkevicius' led "Metalurgs".
The first half started cautiously, initially the ball was more controlled by the players of Zalgiris, but then the game evened out and became open.
In the closing minutes of the first half, both teams exchanged goal-scoring chances but did so from offside positions.
In the second half, "Zalgiris" defender Raimondas Vilėniškis received his second yellow card. This setback did not break the spirits of Zalgiris players - they continued to threaten the opponent's goal, although sometimes carelessly allowing dangerous counterattacks.
As the match was coming to an end, "Metalurgs" could have snatched the victory, when a shot by Mindaugas Kalonas hit one post and then the other.
At the end of the first round, all three teams of Group C, including Tallinn's "Levadia", have collected 2 points each.
"Ventspils" 3 - 0 "Ekranas" 3` [1 - 0] Vits Rimkus 19` [2 - 0] Igors Slesarčuks 23` [3 - 0] Vits Rimkus
"Ventspils": Vanins; Ndeki, Kačanovs, Sokolskis, Kosmačovs (55' Lazdinš); Dubenskiy, Zangareev (46' Gončars), Krjauklis, Rimkus; Slesarčuks, Zizilevs (78' Mysikovs)
"Ekranas": Stefanovič; Skroblas, L.Klimavičius, Gleveckas, Paulauskas; Bička, Tomkevičius, Galkevičius (46' Varnas), Savėnas, Pogreban (69' Petrauskas); Lukšys (75' Saulėnas)
Meanwhile, "Ekranas" lost the match in the first half - already in the third minute, Lithuanian-born Latvian national team forward Vits Rimkus scored from a penalty kick for "Ventspils".
After sixteen minutes, Igors Slesarčukas accurately directed a pass from Michail Zizilevs into the net, and just four minutes later V.Rimkus, receiving another pass from I.Zizilev, outsmarted the goalkeeper and successfully scored.
The Panevezys team, unable to recover from a unsuccessful start, could not turn the game around, and "Ventspils" celebrated a crushing victory.
