© EuroFootball.com
For the second time this week, "Šiauliai" and "Kaunas" met in the "A Lyga" championship, but this time the games were completely different. On Tuesday, "Kaunas" crushed Šiauliai 4-0, while on Saturday, the Kaunas team failed to beat "Šiauliai" - resulting in a goalless draw.
Šiauliai City Municipality Stadium, 1400 spectators
Referee – Vijūnas Vasiliauskas
0 - 0
"Šiauliai": G.Arlauskis; Kirchners, Lunskis, Oriol (70' Kuklys); Lapeikis; Butavičius (79' Olišauskas), M.Lukoševičius, Juodeikis, Šilėnas; Raskov; Tshyhanenko (65' Viktoravičius).
"Kaunas": Malinauskas; Radžius, Mrowiec, Bagužis, Kunevičius; Manchkhava (78' Strakhanovich), D.Sanajevas, Činikas (46' Pehlič), Rimkevičius (60' Grigalevičius); Ledesma, Beniušis.
Immediately, "Kaunas" tried to control the game, just three minutes after the start of the anthem of the "A Lyga", Rafaelis Ledesma broke through the edge, but missed the goal from a few meters. Aside from this episode, "Kaunas" didn't produce any results from controlling the ball, as they failed to create dangerous opportunities, maybe only Richardas Beniušis' long-range shot stood out.
In the second half of the first half, the "Šiauliai" legionnaire Valerijus Ciganenka fell in the penalty area, but the referee's whistle remained silent.
In the second half, the hosts decided to control the game. They took control of the ball and the initiative. A dangerous chance was created by the Saulės city team's legionnaire Viktoras Raskovas, who took a shot at goal. After his shot, the very dangerous ricochetted ball flew completely beside the beam.
Shortly after, the capital city team's player A. Rimkevičius counterattacked on the edge and tried to pass the ball into the penalty area, but the ball went in front of the goal without reaching any of A. Rimkevičius' teammates.
In the 61st minute, "Kaunas" legionnaire Edinas Pehličius broke through the "Šiauliai" players as if through statues, but he failed to beat the last obstacle - goalkeeper G.Arlauskis.
In the middle of the half, the host's legionnaire - one of the two Latvians - Intars Kirchneris demonstrated his abilities in set-piece situations. He shot the ball towards the goal from thirty meters, but the Lithuanian national team goalkeeper M.Malinauskas redirected the ball over the crossbar to defend his goal.
After a few minutes, the same I.Kirchneris sparkled again, he lifted the ball into the penalty area after a free kick, there V.Raskovas headed the ball to the young "Šiauliai" forward V.Viktoravičius, but he took a very weak shot and M.Malinauskas finally grabbed the ball. Once again, M. Malinauskas won the duel between V.Viktoravičius and himself, deflecting the first dangerous shot from an acute angle.
At the end of the main game time, R.Beniušis counterattacked dangerously, but the Šiauliai goalkeeper G.Arlauskis was in his place. He didn't allow the most productive player of the championship to score another goal.
In extra time, the Kaunas team pressed "Šiauliai" and raised three consecutive corner kicks. But none of them ended up in the hosts' goal, and the referee declared the end of the match where spectators did not see any goals - 0-0.
After the match, the interim coach of "Šiauliai" Rytis Tavoras stated that the victory should positively affect the psychological level of the players: "We strengthened with some players who couldn't play in the previous match, where we lost to the same "Kaunas" team 0-4. We played well in defense. The opponents didn't allow us to play better in attack."
