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The Lithuanians’ first chance should have come in the 17th minute, as Justas Lasickas lightly scraped the shot and Karolis Laukžemis was able to block.
The Albanian journalist left the field at 24 minutes and shouted with his hands on the field, demanding a hand in the area and an 11-meter penalty. It is true that the Lithuanian media and the players reassured the colleague: the referee’s yellow card.
Albania coach Edoardo Reja returned to the post-match episode: “The penalty was evident when the defender turned into goalkeeper, using his hand to knock the ball out. I don’t know what a 11-meter penalty would be if this episode wasn’t. “
Photo by Luke April / 15min / National League Match: Lithuania – Albania
After almost half an hour, the ball was found in the Albanian goal, but the referee was upset to start the celebration: he recorded a foul against the goalkeeper.
Tomas Švedkauskas showed why he got a place in the starting team in the 38th minute: he saved the Lithuanian team from goal with a wonderful jump.
After the break, the Lithuanians passed Arvydas Novikovas for a chance. A.Novikovas had another chance in the 62nd minute, but goalkeeper Atritas Beriša already played successfully.
Cold sweat had to spill V. Urbonas in the 65th minute, when one of the rival’s forwards jumped against T.Švedkauskas, but the Lithuanian goalkeeper played wonderfully.
Photo by Luke April / 15min / National League Match: Lithuania – Albania
The rivals still tried to climb the Lithuanian goal, but the defensive line, which remained firm throughout the match, was not broken: the team of our country in the fourth group of the League C of Nations won the fifth point in four games and it even settled in first place until Wednesday night’s game against Belarus.
The Albanians did not score a single goal for the Lithuanian goal in two games, but E. Reja thinks it should have happened.
“We created opportunities, we had around 8-9 good situations to beat in two games, but we didn’t take advantage of them. We just didn’t hit in the right situations,” said the Albanian coach.
And V. Urbonas was happy with the good performance of his team.
“It just came to my attention then. I think we put a lot of heart, we worked hard to win. We could have achieved more, the result could have been different, but I saw the dedication of the players, the desire not to give up in any way in the game. desperate fight. A cozy match with a logical ending “, summed up the helmsman of the Lithuanian team.
Photo by Luke April / 15min / National League Match: Lithuania – Albania
– It was a marathon of three consecutive games, how would you describe it?
– It’s hard enough to endure three games. As you can see, we regard all of them as the most important, we do not look at a friendly match with the Estonians through our fingers. Maybe we could have saved, but the situation is getting into a corner, we wanted to show the game and score points. This is an important moment. Of course, some players were discharged, such as M.Palionis and E.Girdvainis, T.Švedkauskas, others were rotated to a certain extent. All the games were results-oriented. I think we have achieved a positive result.
– From memory, would you say when was the last time the team did not lose four times?
– Unfortunately, I am not a connoisseur of the football encyclopedia. Looking from game to game, we decided not to look at the men in the statistical charts.
Thank you for reminding me that unfortunately time is running out
– So you just started, man. Coaching career in “Ekranas” – 2009. 12 years have passed.
– Thank you for reminding me how unfortunately time is running out (smiles).
– Tomas Švedkauskas replaces the goalkeepers who cannot be in the national team, but can’t a better change be expected or not?
– Looking at what he’s demonstrating, we shouldn’t be talking about some kind of substitution. He has taken a serious step in his career, happy to consolidate it not in one game but in a series of games. I am very happy for him.
– This section of the national team can be called a kind of revival, but what is better in particular, because the core of the national team has remained similar to previous years?
– Perhaps it could be argued that the core has not changed. In 2019 in Luxembourg, when I was in charge of the national team for the first time, only Saulius Mikoliūnas and Arvydas Novikovas were playing in the current line-up, which is a significant change.
Photo by Luke April / 15min / National League Match: Lithuania – Albania
Another thing to understand is that a team is being built, the core is being highlighted, it takes time, additional human resources in the players sense. You want to have as many players as possible who can solve the set challenges.
– In what positions would you like to have more players?
– Today, the obvious lack of players in the defense line, here we have to pay attention to the preparation of the players’ turn. Those positions are central and much depends on them.
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