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On Wednesday, at the Kaunas S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium, Lithuanian champions FBK "Kaunas" crushed Klaipėda's "Atlantas" football team 4-0 in the fourth round of A League matches, with Ričardas Beniušis scoring a hat-trick and becoming the hero of the match.
Kaunas Darius and Girėnas Sports Center Stadium
4 - 0 Klaipėda
34' [1 - 0] Ričardas Beniušis
57' [2 - 0] Ričardas Beniušis
65' [3 - 0] Ričardas Beniušis
68' [4 - 0] Rafael Ledesma
Match began with an open game from both sides. Both "Atlantas" and "Kaunas" attacked, aiming at the goals, however, the home team from Kaunas had a territorial advantage. "Atlantas" had a really dangerous attack early on: in the 8th minute, Luka Aničičius from Croatia shot just next to the goal, and right after a defensive mistake by the "Kaunas" players on the left side of the defense, they had another chance to score, but failed to take advantage.
After this incident, "Kaunas", led by their new coach from Bulgaria Angelo Červenkov, started to control the ball more and create chances to score. They could have scored after Oleg Strachanovičius' breakthrough on the right, where the goalkeeper, after stopping the breakthrough, continued to play insecurely, and after Adrian Mrowiec's lifted ball into the penalty area, which no one from the yellow-green dressed players managed to reach, and also after an episode where Ričardas Beniušis found himself alone against the goalkeeper after a pass.
Alančius played dangerously near the goal from the penalty area, but Mindaugas Malinauskas managed to deflect the ball with his fingertips. It turned out to be the last dangerous attack by Atlantas that day. After half an hour, Rafael Ledesma found himself alone against the goalkeeper after a wonderful pass by R. Beniušis, but the shot deflected off the crossbar.
Kaunas reached their goal shortly after. In the 33rd minute, after a great combination that started with Edinas Pehličius' breakthrough on the wing and a pass to O. Strachanovičius, who passed it to R. Beniušis, who found himself alone against the goalkeeper and scored his fifth goal in the championship. Both teams exchanged a few slightly dangerous attacks after the missed goal, and the first half ended with the score at 1-0.
In the second half, the Kaunas team completely dominated. Andrius Bartkus played actively, threatening the Atlantas goal several times, and Atlantas' goalkeeper Arnas Lekevičius, who had played insecurely throughout the game, could have allowed a goal due to his carelessness. In the 60th minute, after another pass by Oleg Strachanovičius, R. Beniušis scored his second goal of the match. In the 68th minute, after a pass from the right by Pascal Mendy replacing Edin Pehličius, the hat-trick was completed by the same Ričardas Beniušis.
In the 71st minute, the most productive player of the match participated in creating another goal. He deceived the defender on the left, broke through to the goal, and passed the ball to Rafael Ledesma, who scored the fourth goal with a powerful shot into the air into A. Lekevičiaus' goal. Nothing happened until the end of the match that could have changed the outcome, but "Kaunas" clearly dominated on the field that day, doing whatever they pleased on their home turf.
This was the third victory for the Kaunas team this season, but the first with such a large result. After this, "Kaunas" became the sole leader of the A League with ten points.
