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The only goal at St. Galen on Sunday night fell in the second minute, when the hosts’ leader Xherdan Shaqiri scored exactly.
During the rest of the time, the Swiss team had several good opportunities, but the Lithuanians managed to defend themselves and Tomas Švedkauskas was drawn to the visiting team several times.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, team coach Valdas Urbonas praised his students and said they had managed to implement certain agreements.
“We played the first match, the opponent was a really strong Swiss national team. Looking at the course of the match, I can say that we didn’t like the first two minutes when we lost the goal, but for the rest of the time we tried to follow the game plan of organized and disciplined way, a lot was done. Clearly, I have to pay tribute to the players who have really tried very hard not to lose a second goal.
Perhaps we wanted more creativity, we created moments at the gates of the rivals, but today there were not many moments and we did not squeeze anything out of those situations ”, said the specialist.
The goal fell when the Lithuanians made a mistake near their goal, then several similar mistakes ended in Swiss attacks. According to V. Urbonas, this could have been influenced by the initial emotion.
“Maybe that initial excitement was doing his thing, it also had an impact before we got back on track with what we were planning. The first 20 minutes were like a kind of rehabilitation after a failed goal, but the further we felt, the longer we managed to hold the ball, reach the opponent’s goal, those moments were important to us.
In the second half, we try to parizar at certain moments, we try to attack and push the opponent with more force, but then we see the opponent’s class and if they managed to escape from our clutches, there were problems at our door.
But it is very gratifying that all the players gave their best and showed their quality defending and burning for this match, ”said the coach.
„Scanpix“ nuotr./Arvydas Novikovas
The match did not go well without curiosity: its start was delayed 15 minutes, due to problems with one of the gates of the stadium, which turned out to be too high. As V. Urbonas said, he faced such a situation for the first time in his career.
“Faced directly with that loss, of course, it was a bit strange for such casinos to occur in games of this level, but you have to ignore what you cannot change. Of course, this is not a common situation in football, but it was probably not the main reason why we found such problems at the beginning of the game, ”emphasized the strategist.
The coach also did not exercise the right to make the five changes he had and threw three soccer players, Karolis Laukžemis, Tautvydas Eliošiai and Deimantas Petravičius, onto the field from the reserve bench.
“The desire to make a change is to step up the game, to change the course of the game. Clearly I wanted a possibly more powerful Carolfield game ahead, hoping for a bit more as the game entered a phase where I wanted to push opponents higher and try to create something in the penalty area. He’s a capable player there, but he may have failed.
Tautvydas Eliošius left the field and did not lose any balls, the release of Deimantas Petravičius was determined by the fact that he has explosive speed and in moments he can beat an opponent one on one and create a situation somewhere.
“It can be quite difficult for other players to enter the game at such a pace, such intensity, we have used three changes to date, but that does not mean that other players are worse, I think that others will have the opportunity to perform in the match of the Wednesday with the Italians, “said V. Urbonas.
„Reuters“ / „Scanpix“ nuotr./Fiodoras Černychas
He also praised midfielder pair Vytas Gašpuitis and Mark Benet, who, according to the coach, managed to recover after a tough fight in Kosovo.
“Of course, this is a new pair of middle defenders, formed for certain reasons, such as the trauma of Edvinas Girdvainis or the absence of Mindaugas Palionis. If we look at the evolution of this couple, there were many mistakes in the game with Kosovo, but we analyzed those mistakes, we drew conclusions and I think that today both were key people who did a great job defending their goal, together. with Toms Švedkauskas and Egidijus Vaitkūnas and Saulius Mikoliūnu.
I would not like to highlight anything, but as a team we have fought a lot and I am satisfied with the game that the midfielders showed ”, taught V. Urbonas.
Already on Wednesday, the teams will face a confrontation with the favorite Italian team of the band. According to the coach of the national team, the most important thing until then is to recover properly and prepare for the game.
“Of course, maybe at this point we should think about recovering, going home and preparing for this match. There may be changes in the composition, we will play in our stadium, on the artificial surface, and that has some effect. We now have two days. to rest and seriously prepare for a home game with Italy, “he said.
AFP / “Scanpix” nuotr./Tautvydas Eliošius
Meanwhile, the defender of the national team Vykintas Slivka, who also participated in the press conference, said that with a bigger smile of fortune, it was possible to scam the draws.
“It’s a shame that we lost a quick goal, we all know that Switzerland has a very good team and I think that today we fought honorably and with a bit of luck we managed to snatch the draws,” said the player.
Wednesday’s match against the Italian national team from 9:30 p.m. it will be possible to monitor directly on the LRT PLUS channel and through LRT.lt.
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