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"A lyga" season opening match in Marijampolė, where "Sūduva" faced last year's championship outsider "Šilutė" and after a successful 11-minute series in the second half crushed the opponents with a score of 4-1. Marijampolė "Sūduva" stadium, 2200 spectators Referee - Viktoras Chileckis 4 - 1 26' [1 - 0] Aleksandr Sobol 45' [1 - 1] Tadas Straleckas 53' [2 - 1] Willer Souza Oliveira 62' [3 - 1] Sergiy Kozyuberda 64' [4 - 1] Gvidas Juška "Sūduva": S.Klevinskas; Grigas, Milevskiy, M.Skinderis, Sobol; G.Slavickas (66' Urbšys), Mačiulis, Miklinevičius, Kozyuberda (87' Litvinas); Willer (72' Jasaitis), Juška "Šilutė": Hertelendi; Regelskis, A.Sanajevas, Brezina, Khubutia; Zubavičius, Vičius (58' Podelis), Bezykornovas, Kovačev (82' T.Kijanskas), Valskis (84' Petkevičius); Straleckas At the beginning of the match, "Sūduva" had the initiative, but did not seriously threaten the opponents' goal. Then the game leveled out, and for a while everything was happening in the middle of the field. In the 26th minute, a sudden attack by "Sūduva" towards the "Šilutė" goal resulted in Marijampolė defender Alexandras Sobol scoring with a long shot into the top corner of the visitors' goal. After the conceded goal, the Šilutė team made a lot of effort to equalize the score - Marius Bezykornovas and Darius Regelskis were actively involved. Just when it seemed that the first half would end, in the 45th minute, a quick counterattack by "Šilutė" saw Tadas Straleckas redirect a cross with his head into the "Sūduva" goal. Both teams started the second half with the same lineups. One after another, the "Sūduva" attacks followed, and in the 53rd minute of the match, with a beautiful long shot (from about 17 meters) into the bottom corner of the goal, another "Sūduva" legionnaire from Brazil, Willer Oliveira, defeated the visitors' goalkeeper. Less than 5 minutes later, on the left side, Nerijus Mačiulis passed the ball to the Ukrainian legionnaire Sergiy Kozyuberda, who found himself right in front of the goal and forced the visitors' goalkeeper to pull the ball out of his net for the third time. Just two minutes later, Gvidas Juška sent the ball into the visitors' goal from about 14 meters. After the fourth conceded goal, the visitors' team never recovered and failed to create sharp situations in front of the "Sūduva" goal. The Marijampolė team, slightly relaxed, controlled the ball reliably until the end of the match and finished with a victory. After the match, the coach of Šilutė, Darius Gvildys, stated that the outcome of the match was determined by eleven minutes in the second half when his players allowed the opponents to score three goals. "In the first half, everything was normal, with active play from our team. We had chances, and "Sūduva" had chances. In the second half, everything was decided by those fateful 11 minutes, during which we conceded three goals. Whether you like it or not - the team gets shaken. Defensively, we made a lot of childish mistakes. Players of A league teams should not make such mistakes. I liked the safe line of play in "Sūduva," Juška was active, the team has experienced defenders," said the coach of Šilutė. Meanwhile, the head coach of "Sūduva," Algimantas Gabrys, was pleased with the result but acknowledged that the match was not easy. "The beginning of the season is always difficult. The first half was especially tough because the quality of the field was poor, it was difficult to control the ball. In the first half, we did not show our game. In the second half, we implemented our plan, which we prepared during training. We scored three "quick" goals. After that, the team relaxed a bit, made quite a few mistakes. I'm happy with the result. A good start - half the job," said A.Gabrys. The Marijampolė strategist also praised the successful performance of the newcomers in the team attacking the goal. "The goals scored were beautiful, not accidental, after combinations. We should expect the team to "catch up" with the game. Overall, the match was successful. It's not easy to play against "Šilutė." The whole team defends and then counterattacks dangerously. All goals were scored by new "Sūduva" players. They strengthened the team. All goals were beautiful. We should hope that these players will not lose the taste for scoring in the future," said the "Sūduva" coach.
