Both Zidane and Bayern’s star were sad: how did Lithuania defeat France on the football field? | Sports

“Wow. Fantastic, – said Edgaras Jankauskas at the press conference at the Darius i Girėnas Stadium after the victory, after hearing about the success of the nineteen-year-old team. – I don’t remember if Lithuania has scored a goal against France and it doesn’t matter if U19 or U15. I’m glad that a promising generation is growing up, every victory brings us a lot of joy.”

The Lithuanian national team entered the elite division of the European Championship selection after defeating Belarus 2:0 in the last match of the first round.

Romuald Janson’s two late goals meant that the Lithuanian, Greek and Belarusian national teams lined up behind the group winners Turkey with 3 points each. Due to a better ratio of goals scored and goals conceded, the Lithuanians coached by Reinhold Breu finished second.

“As far as we’ve seen, the last time the youth team reached the elite round was nine years ago, so it’s a good achievement, – 15 minutes said former football player Deimantas Bička, who works as the German’s assistant in the U19 national team. – Of course, then we played in November, now we were choosing a fight, so the break was long, a lot depended on the form of the players and other things.

Yes, we had in mind our entry far, we knew that countries like England, Poland didn’t even get there, so the achievement is big, but we didn’t look back much, we tried to concentrate on our future opponents, our game.”

In the elite stage, the Lithuanians had a group of death, where they were waiting to fight against the football elite: the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

“We used to joke with each other that we got caught like not being invited to a party, where you find yourself unexpectedly, you don’t know the etiquette, the rules of behavior, or the dress code,” D. Bička joked. – Anyway, we got to know everything on the field, it’s good that the guys were able to reorient themselves to high skill, to that level, but the intensity was very high. It should be emphasized that we were strong as a team: discipline, principles of the game. This made it possible to compensate for that individual skill that our rivals had.”

In the first match, the Lithuanians lost 0:4 to the Dutch who played at home, and in the second they lost to Belgium 0:2.

“We flew in on Tuesday, hit the grass, and most of our players are training on synthetics. On Wednesday we already had a match against the Dutch, who play on grass every day. The spring courts are a bit softer, another thing is that they have been in the elite for a hundred years, they play at home, where they are supported by 6,000 fans. We are new, everything is normal for them and they want to build a lead as soon as possible. That was the first half, where mistakes came from lack of confidence, we conceded the first two goals after our own mistakes. It undermined us morally, our self-confidence fell. It’s like you’re playing like you’re doing the things we’ve been doing all year, but when mistake after mistake, the result is negative – then you don’t know what to do and how to act. In the second half, we regrouped as we closed with a 5-4-1 formation. Yes, the score was 0-4, but according to the statistics, we had 4 shots on goal, we ran into quick attacks. It was not the case that the match went to one goal,” said D. Bička.

“Against the Belgians, the statistics show that we had more chances to score goals than the opponents,” the assistant coach emphasized. – With the result 0:0, we repeatedly ran 2-on-1, we had shots on goal, where the goalkeeper saved. If a goal had been scored, it is not known how everything would have ended. The Belgians scored both the first and second goals from their skill, but in this match we felt that we were not weaker. It was probably a great discovery for both coaches and players.”

And then a historic morning dawned in Asen. France had already secured the first place, Lithuania had no chance to climb up, but the desire was enormous.

“You know, you go to a game and you don’t know what to expect. The fact that France no longer needed anything. If they had played, let’s say, a draw with the Dutch, then France would need a goal difference, maybe the motivation would be different and so on. In this case, they left 3-4 key players on the bench, but our few important players didn’t play either because they picked up yellow cards. Perhaps the beginning was determined by our motivation, concentration, desire to score a goal, desire not to stay with zero in this section. Two early goals were a cold shower for the French, and then much depended on discipline. Teamwork, good defense made it possible to achieve victory. The fact that the very beginning determined a lot in this match”, said D. Bička.

The honor of the French national team is defended by the son of the legendary Zinedine Zidane, Elyaz, who is developing in the Sevilla “Real Betis” club, and even 50 million remained on the bench in the match against Lithuania. Transfermarkt values ​​Mathys Telis, who has played 22 games and scored 5 goals for Bayern Munich in this Bundesliga season alone.

15 million ran on the field in the rival team. Eli Junior Kroupi from Lorient, who scored 5 goals in the Ligue 1 championship this season, valued at EUR 10,000, Saëlis Kumbedi, the representative of Olympique Lyonnais, valued at EUR 9 million, played from the first minutes against Lithuania. euros.

According to Transfermarkt, the entire France U19 squad is worth just over €85 million. euros, and the values ​​of most Lithuanian football players are not even indicated in this system, so the entire team is valued at almost 700 thousand. euros.

It can be mentioned that, according to “Transfermarkt”, the value of the entire composition of the Lithuanian champion “Panevėžys” only slightly exceeds 6 million. euros.

“We couldn’t let them play against us one-on-one,” emphasized D. Bička. – Then there would have been a lot of problems, but we were able to defend disciplined, work as a team and thus eliminated their strengths. But yes, these are incredibly talented players. And not only in the French team. Players of Belgian, Dutch teams… And they are already near the main teams or even in their top leagues. Let’s take Mathys Telis – he didn’t play against us, but 50 million. Transfermarkt is appreciated. You need to understand what kind of young people play at this level.”

D. Bička admitted that the feeling of defeating the representatives of the world football powerhouse France is strange.

“We win 2-0, we go to shake hands with the reserve referee – he smiles, we smile. You understand what happened here, the French have their heads down, the spectators are applauding us in the tribune. A special feeling. A win against a Top 5 country. But maybe this will be a good start to some kind of recovery? We have shown that everything is possible”, said R. Breu’s assistant.

Both goals in the winning match were scored by Ernestas Gudelevičius, who scored in the 3rd and 6th minutes. The 19-year-old Lithuanian is improving in Italy, where he represents Fiorentina in the Primavera championship.

“He is an exceptional player, very strong individually, likes to be with the ball, has a good change of running direction, is not stressed when playing against a stronger opponent, in small areas. Then he is curious. He is somewhat weaker with discipline, maybe he has less motivation when the opponent is weaker, but Ernest can really play with very capable opponents. He needs to be motivated, disciplined, to demand more from himself in terms of work on the field, because sometimes we know that attacking players don’t really want to defend. There is definitely room for improvement, but in terms of attack, individual skill, understanding of the game itself, this is a very talented player. Two goals against Belarus were not created by him, but scored by him, and now against France he scored two himself. These are four goals, which led to both entry into the elite division and excellence in it,” D. Bička described the hero of the match.

R. Jansons representing Vilnius “Žalgiris” was the most productive in six matches, with three accurate shots.

“He’s already strong enough in terms of his body – he doesn’t give up to anyone in duels, he likes to push himself, block, go to duels. – said D. Bička. – He was our main striker, it was often difficult for him because he was alone, against stronger opponents he also worked a lot in defense, not only in attack.

We want him to play in the club and get minutes on the field. What can be added? Game in the penalty area, predicting spaces, cuts. He definitely has a bright future, but like I said, he needs to play, get loads, get rebounds, get experience. If the coach sees something different in the club, then it is difficult. A player on the bench will not progress.”

When asked if, seeing the U19 national team footballers, he is calm about the future of the country’s football, D. Bička pondered.

“And yes and no. I have been in youth football for many years, so I am happy that we have such good youth. On the other hand, it’s sad because we don’t fully appreciate him both at the club level and in the academies. He is not used enough, he is not worked with enough, these footballers do not get enough playing time, confidence. If the situation in our clubs does not change, it will be difficult to expect good progress.

In the national teams, we provide opportunities, confidence and then we see how the players reveal themselves, show themselves at the next level and show it on the field, not sitting on the bench. Here is the answer. We certainly have a lot of talented young people, but you need to work with them, push them, use them, but also trust them. Then the results will come, and the national teams will be competitive, there will be no problem selecting players for the national team, because there will be several for one place. Now sometimes it happens that we are looking for a specific position and we can’t find anyone who can be taken from all over Lithuania,” said the assistant coach of the youth national team.