© EuroFootball.com
On Sunday at the "Vėtra" stadium in Vilnius, in the 5th round of matches, two different halves took place on the field, but at the end of the match, the winners were the Vilnius footballers who left the field after defeating "Šiauliai" 2-1.
Vilnius "Vėtra" Stadium, 500 spectators Referee - Vitalijus Kazlauskas 2 - 1 24' [1 - 0] Rodolfo Kumbrevicius De Oliveira 28' [2 - 0] Rodnei Francisco De Lima 60' [2 - 1] Viktor Raskov
"Vilnius": Liudvikas Valius; Ramūnas Radavičius, Rodnei, Darius Artiomovas, Georgas Freidgeimas; Erasmo, Paulinho, Andreson, Muller (90' Adilson); Kleyr, Rodolfo (69' Vytautas Lukša)
"Šiauliai": Ingus Lukovičs; Gintaras Juodeikis, Deivydas Lunskis, Egidijus Žukauskas, Intars Kirchners (73' Vaidas Viktoravičius); Andrejus Oriol, Vaidas Šilėnas, Aleksandr Zabara (16' Mindaugas Lukoševičius), Gediminas Butavičius (46' Valeriy Tsiganenko), Davidas Arlauskis; Viktor Raskov
The match started off quite cautiously by both teams, so the first chance for a goal was created only after more than ten minutes, when after Muller's pass from the left side, Paulinho unsuccessfully shot from less than five meters.
Several other dangerous attacks by "Vilnius" followed soon after until finally, in the 24th minute of the match, after a pass from Paulinho from the left side, poorly defended by the "Šiauliai" defenders, the ball flew almost the entire penalty area until reaching the Brazilian of Lithuanian descent Rodolfo Kumbrevicius, who put the hosts ahead.
"Šiauliai" responded with a slightly more dangerous attack, with Mindaugas Lukoševičius at the end of it turning and shooting inaccurately. However, a few minutes later, the second goal fell into the visitors' net - after Muller's lifted corner higher than all in the penalty area, the powerful shot of the "Vilnius" defender Rodnei on the right side disarmed the "Šiauliai" goalkeeper.
Following the second goal, the "Vilnius" footballers continued to dominate on the field, while the "Šiauliai" attacks often broke down in the middle of the pitch.
Seeing a particularly poor performance from his players on the field, "Šiauliai" coach Darius Magdišauskas decided to send in a second striker and instead of Gediminas Butavičius who was playing as a midfielder, the high forward Valeriy Tshyhanenko appeared on the field.
This substitution could have borne fruit just a few minutes later - after a pass from the right side, Viktor Raskov successfully outran goalkeeper Liudvikas Valius, creating a good chance, but shooting directly at Georgas Freidgeimas on the goal line, and the rebounded ball was headed into the empty net from a few meters away by V. Tshyhanenko.
However, "Šiauliai" managed to reduce the deficit in the second half by playing for 15 minutes, when after a pass from Gintaras Juodeikis from the left side, V. Tshyhanenko headed into the corner of the goal - their shot was successfully rebuffed by L. Valius, but as the ball rebounded to V. Raskov, he defeated the Vilnius goalkeeper from a sharp angle.
Inspired by this goal, the "Šiauliai" players pressed even harder on the hosts, leaving quite a bit of space near their own goal. Just a few minutes later, after a poor display by "Šiauliai" goalkeeper Ingus Lukovičs, the ball fell to Brazilian Paulinho, but he missed the target from 20 meters away.
Ten minutes later, the "Vilnius" forward Kleyras had a good chance to secure the victory, but his header from about 10 meters missed just next to the goalpost.
While "Šiauliai" focused more on their attack, "Vilnius" tried one dangerous counter-attack after another - one of them was very successful with less than ten minutes left, when completely free in front of the opponents' goal, Vytautas Lukša ran out after a substitution appeared on the field, but the goalkeeper was confused when faced with such an opportunity, nervously looking for his teammates and finally shot well above the goal.
As the main time of the match was coming to an end, Kleyras had another chance to extend the lead, successfully passing two defenders, but his shot from 15 meters went straight at I. Lukovičs.
Šiauliai had the most real chance to equalize the score in extra time, when after a good pass from the left side, the young Vaidas Viktoravičius, free in the center of the penalty area, released the ball from far away and failed to outsmart L. Valius.
But the last moments of the match were grabbed by the "Vilnius" fans - just before the referee's final whistle, one of them, Paulinho, broke away on the left side against I. Lukovičs, but he also missed the target - the ball flew just next to the empty goal.
After this victory, "Vilnius" secured third place in the standings with nine points, trailing the leaders "Kaunas" and "Žalgiris" by two points. Meanwhile, "Šiauliai" shares sixth place with Panevėžys "Ekrantas" footballers with six points.
