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The 2022 European Championship selection for the Lithuanians started with two painful lessons.
Crushed in Iceland, they hoped to make up for a match with Portugal.
Earlier this year, the Portuguese ranked sixth in the European Championship (the highest in its history), but memories of previous duel fights and pre-match reinforcements fueled his ambitions.
Due to the COVID-19 disease, the leaders of the national team representing Jonas Truchanovičius and Gerdas Babarskas representing French clubs spent the last two weeks on the sickbed, spent the first match with Iceland and arrived in Lithuania as soon as they received the test results.
Arno Strumila / Photo 15min / Moment of the match
But they weren’t in top sporting shape, nor were the entire Lithuanian team trained by Mindaugas Andriuška this week.
On Sunday, the Lithuanians were hot on their heels only at the start of the match. Although they had to chase, the Lithuanians approached at 9:10, they still felt they could fight.
“We work in defense!” M. Andriuška kept shouting.
“John, look at the barrier! – Vaidotas Grosas, assistant coach of the Lithuanian national team, advised through the loudspeaker. “Let’s go!”
“Let’s play to the end, men,” repeated the calls from the reserve bench.
Lithuanian national goalkeeper Giedrius Morkūnas endured many difficult blows, but an even stronger stone hit the Portuguese national goal.
When 32-year-old Alfredo Quintana blocked several consecutive Lithuanian shots early in the second half, when the ball was lost twice in a row, the hosts’ heads began to take hold. The advantage of the guests led by Paulo Pereira became double digits.
Arno Strumilos / 15min nuotr./Aidenas Malašinskas ir Alfredo Quintana
Mindaugas Urbonas scored the most goals for the Lithuanian team, scoring 5 times.
Aidenas Malašinskas, Jonas Truchanovičius, Mindaugas Dumčius, Valdas Drabavičius, Gerdas Babarskas and Žanas Gabrielius Virbauskas scored 3 goals each.
Portugal scored 5 goals for Pedro Portela, followed by 4 Daymaro Salina Amadoras, Víctor Manuel Iturriza Álvarez and André Gómez.
A. Quintana and Lukas Simėnas were recognized as the best players of the match.
Arno Strumilos / 15min nuotr./Lukas Simėnas
The Lithuanian team, who lost the first qualifying match in Iceland this week at 8:36 pm, remain last in group 4.
After winning the first match at 31:22 against Israel, the Portuguese now moved up to first place. The second-round match between Iceland and Israel was postponed due to COVID-19.
It is obvious that Portugal (4 points) and Iceland (2) are claiming the top two places in the group, and the Lithuanians will find out who will take third place in the group in two games with Israel in March next year.
The top four third-party teams from the eight qualifying groups will also enter the 2022 European Championship, so there are still chances.
But points with the remaining team in fourth place will not count, so Lithuanians who have been dreaming of the final stage of the European Championship for more than two decades desperately need points from the clashes with the group leaders.
The Lithuanian team will meet Iceland and Portugal at the end of next year, but this week’s lessons and extremely low goal rate do not promise anything good.
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