Žalgiris Women Suffer Defeat in Baltic Women's Football League

2024-06-12 06:00 © lff.lt

The main team of the Women's Football Academy "Žalgiris"-MRU recognized the superiority of one of the tournament favorites SFK "Rīga", which is part of the RFS club, with the result of 1:4 in their field.

After intense 2:2 draws in the last tournament match against Šiauliai FK "Gintra", the Vilnius team faced the team from the Latvian capital, who are higher on the table. The head coach of the "Žalgiris"-MRU team, Bogdanas Lukashenko, has repeatedly mentioned that the goals of this season are the highest: both in the national championship and in the Baltic League, the Žalgiris team will aim for the highest places of honor. Therefore, points in any match are especially important. Unfortunately, after the rain on the wet grass, things went better for the visitors from Latvia.

It is certainly not possible to say that the result of the match reflects the real strength of the teams. The Žalgiris team had their chances to score, but Fortune smiled on the Latvian visitors this time.

In the first half, the Žalgiris team successfully created attacks, but an unexpected quick attack by the opponents resulted in the first goal into the hosts' goal, and about 10 minutes later after a corner, Meda Šetkutė had to take the ball out of her net for the second time. In the 38th minute of the match, one of the hosts' attacks finally ended with a goal: after a beautiful combination, Polina Yanchuk scored a precise shot.

After the break, the Žalgiris team tried to find a way to the opponents' goal, but lacked accuracy and luck. The opponents took advantage of their chances: in the 80th minute, after an unexpected ricocheted ball, it again nestled in the "Žalgiris"-MRU goal, and as the referee counted down the final seconds of added time, Olesia Malinovska scored her third goal and sealed the match with a score of 1:4.

"I'm not making a tragedy: we really created a lot of chances, but we didn't capitalize on them, and the visitors were lucky. I liked the quality of the game, although some players may not have been in their optimal form. And the field was 'difficult', so I can only say that the result does not reflect the real strength of the teams.

We won't hang our heads – we will train, work, and important upcoming matches in the Lithuanian championship await. In the first stage of the Baltic League, there is one more match: we are negotiating the date with Saku "Sporting" team from Estonia. I hope for a more favorable result in the knockout matches," – said the coach of Žalgiris after the match.

After losing to the Riga team, which is the undisputed leader of the Baltic League, MFA "Žalgiris"-MRU continues to share the 3-4 places in the tournament.

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