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With a little over half a year left before the start of the 2008 European Championship qualifying cycle, the Lithuanian national team began their preparation on March 1st with a friendly match against Albania in the capital city of Tirana, coached by Algimantas Liubinskas.
Since Lithuania will have to face Georgia in Group B of the qualifying tournament, the team's coaches and managers decided to play against a southern country with a similar style of football, and this time they managed to arrange a match with Albania.
Less than a week before the match, the Lithuanian Football Federation announced the preliminary squad, which includes as many as ten players from the "A Lyga" clubs - seven from the Lithuanian champions Panevėžys "Ekranas", two from Vilnius "Žalgiris" and one from "Kaunas".
The initial squad traveling to Albania did not include the main goalkeeper Žydrūnas Karčemarskas, defenders Tomas Žvirgždauskas and injured Nerijus Barasa, as well as the suspended international players Deividas Šemberas and Edgaras Česnauskas, and the recently recovered forward Edgaras Jankauskas.
However, there were changes in the updated squad - defenders Giedrius Tomkevičius, Virmantas Lemežis were replaced by Marius Žaliūkas, and forward Vitalijus Kavaliauskas, Tomas Radzinevičius and defender Rolandas Džiaukštas were replaced by Tomas Žvirgždauskas.
It is believed that coaches decided not to include three "A Lyga" players in the squad and were hindered in including R.Džiaukštas by his club "Saturn".
Updated Lithuanian national team squad for the match against Albania
Goalkeepers: 1. Paulius Grybauskas ("Ekranas") 2. Mindaugas Malinauskas ("Žalgiris")
Defenders: 3. Gediminas Paulauskas ("Ekranas") 4. Arūnas Klimavičius ("Ekranas") 5. Marius Stankevičius ("Brescia", Italy) 6. Audrius Skerla (Tomsk "Tom", Russia) 7. Tomas Žvirgždauskas ("Halmstad", Sweden) 8. Darius Žutautas (unattached)
Midfielders: 9. Marius Žaliūkas ("Kaunas") 10. Saulius Mikoliūnas (Edinburgh "Hearts", Scotland) 11. Deividas Česnauskis (Edinburgh "Hearts", Scotland) 12. Mantas Savėnas ("Ekranas") 13. Darius Miceika ("Ventspils", Latvia) 14. Mindaugas Kalonas ("Metalurg", Liepāja, Latvia)
Forwards: 15. Robertas Poškus ("Zenith", Saint Petersburg, Russia) 16. Tomas Danilevičius ("Avellino", Italy) 17. Povilas Lukšys ("Ekranas") 18. Linas Pilibaitis ("Kaunas")
