© EuroFootball.com
After the second round of the Lithuanian championship match on Tuesday, Marijampolė's "Sūduva" head coach Algimantas Gabrys said that an unexpected goal spoiled the game for his team, while the winning Vilnius "Žalgiris" coach Arminas Narbekovas praised his players' performance.
In a tough match, "Žalgiris" won on their home field after Nikolajus Misiukas' goal in the 72nd minute.
According to A. Gabrys, "Sūduva" tried to attack and take advantage of "Žalgiris" attackers' weaknesses, inspired by their victory against "Šilutė" on Saturday.
"We started the match with two forwards because in the first game we saw that we can play attacking football and score. Meanwhile, "Žalgiris" plays without forwards. Igoris Morinas, who is a nominal forward, plays more as a defender. So we wanted to take advantage of this," said A. Gabrys.
"The match was quite even, but an unexpected and illogical goal after a defender's mistake changed everything. In the second half, our defenders lost battles in the midfield, so the opponents often visited our goal area, but they didn't create any real danger. The team played very poorly in attack," said A. Gabrys.
"Žalgiris" president and head coach A. Narbekovas stated that they deserved the win and were happy with the determination shown by their players.
"We won deservedly. We defeated the LFF Cup holders. If we play in all matches like we did today in the second half, there will be very few teams that can compete with us for a victory," said A. Narbekovas.
"I am pleased with the team's fighting spirit. In the match against Klaipėda's "Atlantas", we were losing 0-1, but we managed to focus and win. The match against "Sūduva" just confirmed that we are a strong team," claimed the "Žalgiris" coach.
