At the start of the European minor football championship, Lithuanians draw with the world vice-champions Sports

The Lithuanian national team, which started the match powerfully, greeted the opponents from Ukraine with two goals in the first half. 11 minutes Rokas Masenzovs scored, and three minutes later Ignas Raštutis sent the ball into the opponent’s goal. At the beginning of the second half, the best player of 2023 scored his first goal in the national minor football team. Lithuanian indoor soccer player Albertas Voskunovičius. After his accurate shot, the Lithuanians took a 3-0 lead, but did not keep the lead.

In the second part of the match, the Ukrainian footballers changed the course of the game and by including the goalkeeper in the attacks, they more and more often created a quantitative advantage on the Lithuanian side of the field. 25 minutes Yevhen Yablonko took advantage of a mistake by the Lithuanian defenders and disarmed the goalkeeper Andrii Juzkiv with a precise shot.

30 minutes Lithuanian national team defender Mindaugas Kasparas violated the rules in his own penalty area and the Ukrainians got the right to shoot the ball. Although A. Juzkiv, who played well, saved the shot of Ukrainian Dmytros Voitenko, the referees counted the goal, because before the time allotted for the execution of the shot, the Lithuanian football player stepped to his side of the field. Taking advantage of the confusion in the ranks of the Lithuanians, the Ukrainians immediately organized another attack and in 31 minutes. Mykola Kodatskyi equalized the result.

However, during the rest of the time, the Lithuanian football players showed character and did not allow the opponents to get ahead, and in 39 min. could have scored an effective point in a dramatic match, but the shot of A. Voskunovičius, who was in front of the goal, was saved by the goalkeeper of Ukraine.

After the match, the head coach of the Lithuanian junior football team, Mindaugas Grigalevičius, said that the draw with the world vice-champions was not a bad result, but he admitted that there was an opportunity to grab all three points. “I think we started the match very well, you can probably say that we showed our best football for at least 25 minutes. Unfortunately, the first conceded goal threw us off the rails a bit, and after that unlucky goal, our game dropped even more. However, I can praise the men that even after the third conceded goal, they did not break down, concentrated and finally stopped the opponents’ attacks, and at the end they even had a very good chance to snatch the victory. In summary, if someone had offered a draw before the game, we would have accepted it. Now, taking into account the course of the match, the draw leaves a certain disappointment, not joy”, stated M. Grigalevičius.

France and Albania also played out a 0-0 draw in the other Group E match. The Serbian national team also competes in this group. A total of 22 national teams participate in the SOCCA European Cup Championship. They are fighting not only for the title of winners, but also for tickets to 2024. the world championship, which will be held in Oman this November.

The Lithuanian national team, which made its debut at the European Junior Football Championship in 2013, last fought against the strongest teams of the Old Continent eight years ago. in 2016 In August, the Lithuanian national team met the teams of Romania, Spain and France in the European mini-football championships held in Székesfehérvár, Hungary. At that time, the Lithuanians were forced to recognize the superiority of the Romanians and the Spanish, and they won the only victory by beating the French 3:2.

Today at 22:00 The national teams of Lithuania and France will try their hand once again.