R. Breu after U19 Baltic Cup: "Equal tournament of three teams

2024-06-15 09:00 © lff.lt

In the U19 boys' national team Baltic Cup tournament held in Kaunas, the Lithuanian national team had to settle for third place.

All tournament participants - Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia - each won and experienced one defeat, so the ranking of teams was decided based on goal difference.

The Lithuanians defeated the Estonians 2:1, but lost to the Latvians 0:2, the Estonians defeated the Latvians 2:1, which resulted in Latvia taking first place, the Estonians coming second, and the third place going to the Lithuanians.

Summing up the team's performance, Lithuanian coach Reinholdas Breu stated that the tournament and his team were very evenly matched.

"An equal tournament among three teams, all of which won one game. All teams played one better and one slightly weaker match, and for us, these were two good tests preparing for the European Championship qualifiers."

"Our preparation was not easy, due to exams and injuries we had to play without three important footballers. The foreign players playing abroad had already finished their seasons, while the local players had already started their exam session," concluded the Lithuanian national team coach.

The Lithuanians dominated the game against Estonia for more than half, but they scored the winning goal only at the very end of the match. According to R. Breu, he never lost faith that the Lithuanians would achieve their goal.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us and we will have two ten-day camps in September and October, where we will have to do everything to be ready for the European Championship qualifiers afterwards. I am satisfied with the game against Estonia because we played adult football there and controlled the game for almost the entire time. When we played in the majority, I never lost patience and I knew we would create opportunities to score the winning goal," said the German.

Both goals in that match were scored from set-pieces - Nojus Audinis scored with a header after a penalty kick, and Adrian Lickūnas also scored with a header at the very end of the match.

"A major emphasis on our game is ball possession, but we still understand the importance of set-pieces. We want to be dangerous, and we take these situations seriously in training; my assistants Deimantas Bička and Gianluca Minarelli help a lot here," the specialist talked about tactical matters.

Meanwhile, talking about the second match against Latvia, R. Breu was candid and stated that the good performance was only a part of the game.

"In the second match, we were good for about 50 minutes, we had weaker periods. The Latvians played well and effectively used their chances, which we lacked. Having six good chances at the international level, you have to score at least two goals, but we didn't do that and deservedly lost.

Football is a results-oriented sport, and with this team, we won and suffered two defeats in the last four matches. We tried new players and continue to implement our ideas and further develop team strength, which we do with all our youth national teams.

Many things are going well for us, and with other factors, we continue to work. Regardless of the age group, each match at the international level will be very, very difficult," he concluded.