© EuroFootball.com
The intrigue in the Latvian "Virsliga" ended in the penultimate round - all three favorites secured victories and for the first time in the club's history, two Lithuanians clinched the champion's title in their ranks, crowning last year's winner another Lithuanian club "Metalurgs", while the long-time country champion "Skonto" had to settle for bronze medals.
A week ago, Liepaja's "Metalurgs" coached by Benjamin Zelkevičius [link="http://www.eurofootball.com/index.php?page=news&id=7544"]won[/link] a duel of the Latvian championship leaders and maintained intrigue, but on Wednesday in the rescheduled 17th round match, the port city team unexpectedly lost to Daugavpils "Ditton" club with a score of 0-2 and almost lost hope of catching up with rivals.
So, for "Ventspils" with a four-point lead wanting to secure the champion's title, they needed to either beat the absolute league outsider Rezekne "Dižvanagi" in the 27th round match, or wait for "Metalurgs" to stumble. However, the Ventspils team, although not easily, took care of business themselves and defeated opponents with Igor Slesarčiuk's goal from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute of the match with a four-point lead with one match left which was inaccessible and for the first time in the club's history won the gold medals of the Latvian championship. Among the new champions, Igor Stukalinas played until the 66th minute, and Deimantas Bička until the 90th.
"Metalurgs" had to settle for silver medals, winning 2-0 against Daugavpils "Dinaburg". No Lithuanians played the entire game in last year's champion team - Tomas Tamošauskas earned his second yellow card at the end of the first half and was sent off the field, Artūras Rimkevičius played from the second half, while other Lithuanian legionnaires Darius Miceika, Mindaugas Kalonas, Vadimas Petrenko, and striker Nerijus Astrauskas were not registered for the match.
In fourth place despite the failure, "Dinaburg" secured "Jūrmala" away with Gintaras Staučė and "Skonto" from Riga in third place, while to maintain his position, "Ditton" needs to win a point in the last round or wait for "Jūrmala" below the ladder team's failure. "Riga" took the seventh place, while the last place went to "Dižvanagi", who managed to get only two points throughout the season.
League table: (Place, team, played, won, drawn, lost, goals, points) 1. Ventspils 27 19 4 4 45-20 61 2. Metalurgs 27 17 6 4 60-20 57 3. Skonto 27 16 5 6 53-19 53 4. Dinaburg 27 12 4 11 30-34 40 5. Ditton 27 10 7 10 31-29 37 6. Jūrmala 27 10 4 13 33-35 34 7. Riga 27 6 4 17 21-52 22 8. Dižvanagi 27 0 2 25 10-74 2
Top scorers: 1. Mihails Miholaps ("Skonto") - 15 goals 2. Girts Karlsons ("Metalurgs") - 13 3. Jurgis Kalns ("Jūrmala") - 12 4-5. Darius Miceika ("Metalurgs"), Kristaps Grebis ("Metalurgs") - 11 each
