Although last week in Georgia Žalgiris players were handled like hot wool, on Thursday in Vilnius the circumstances will be on the Lithuanian club’s side – artificial turf, full stands, and home stadium.
“Probably no one – neither ourselves nor the fans – expected that we could lose 0:3… Of course, we are disappointed, but life goes on – there is a second match. Of course, coming back from 0:3 is difficult, the deficit is big, but you have to do everything so that, first of all, we just play well,” said Andrius Skerla on the eve of the match.
– Not to think about how to score 3 goals. At first – only about one, and goals change the game. If we manage to score as early as possible, of course, we should have more time to score others. Of course, we must not forget that the opponents also have good players who currently feel comfortable.
It is unknown what their reaction or plan will be. Will they already be somewhat accustomed to having a 3-goal advantage? Maybe they will think everything is over? We do not know that, so we think about ourselves. About how we can punish them and make them feel uncomfortable here.”
His charges made childish mistakes last week in Tbilisi and brought home a 3-goal deficit. In fact, Dinamo’s advantage in the second round of the Conference League qualifiers could have been even greater, but the legendary Georgian club did not capitalize on all their chances.
“You saw it yourselves… The goals that went in… Were really very weak, poor. Such goals where the opponent did not create or dribble in those moments. We were late. The first goal – a comical one… Quite an easy situation, need to clear or the goalkeeper to come out… Childish goals,” continued A. Skerla.
– It seemed that we were defending well. And that third goal – after a free kick, where the goalkeeper saved the shot, but we were late (at the rebound), they were first. Or the second goal – we defend from the ball behind our backs, need to clear it, but we hit the ball into the opponent…
VIDEO: Dinamo Tbilisi 3:0 Zalgiris Vilnius • CONFERENCE LEAGUE Second Round
Dinamo Tbilisi 3:0 Zalgiris Vilnius • CONFERENCE LEAGUE Second Round
Very frustrating. Of course, there were also moments from their side where you saw that they beat us with their individual skill, created chances, but there our goalkeeper saved. I really did not expect that in such matches we could concede such frustrating goals.”
The heads of Žalgiris defenders were most troubled by the 16-year-old, Paris Saint-Germain star Chvicha Kvaratskhelia’s brother Tornike.
T. Kvaratskhelia’s playing episodes against Žalgiris:
“All our coaches analyzed his previous matches. We saw that he is not a main player, usually coming on as a substitute, but we saw his individual abilities and emphasized that. We saw how he plays, how confident he is, how unafraid and how surprising his physicality is at such an age. We emphasized all this, showed it to the players, but you saw yourself that he is not afraid to rush past two players…
What I noticed is that all his movements are like his brother’s. Dribbling, the ball close to his foot, he waits for some movement from the defender and evaluates and makes decisions very well. He played one and a half halves against us, and in the second half he also had a good counterattack, which could have ended with another comical goal against us… Every time he has the ball – there is a threat. We will solve this issue. We will defend a bit differently.
But in the Dinamo team, there is not only him. Around him, other attacking players are interesting, individually strong, fast, and dangerous in quick counterattacks,” said A. Skerla.
Žalgiris president Andrius Tapinas even named the comeback chance in percentages – 9, but A. Skerla did not give such precise forecasts.
“It’s difficult… I don’t know how those percentages are evaluated. I look at my team and see that we can score. In the last 10 matches we played here, we scored 3 goals about 7 times,” counted the Žalgiris head coach. “Yes, now we play in the Conference League – scoring 3 here is not easy. But we play at home, I am sure the spectators, fans will come, and as I said, goals change the game. I hope that after scoring one – wings will grow for the team.”
A. Skerla also confirmed that all Žalgiris footballers are healthy and ready for Thursday’s fight and commented on rumors linking one of the leaders Bryan Teixeira with a move to the second French league.
“There is nothing concrete… Maybe something was written somewhere, but neither Bryan talked about it with me or anyone from the team. There are always rumors, but it is definitely not that the player wants to leave or asks something from the club. I think he feels comfortable here, currently he has really recovered from that minor injury and is showing good play again,” said A. Skerla.
“That loss in Tbilisi was very painful, but from my experience, I say what I told the team, that you should never give up,” believed Žalgiris captain Ovidijus Verbickas at the press conference.
– Now we will play at home, on our own turf, we will have a large support of our fans. I think it is very good that before these matches we managed to win in Toplyga, where we also came back twice, showed character, and won in the last minute (3:2 against Kauno r. Hegelmann – ed.).
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I think the team now really believes that we can get out of this difficult situation. We will give all our strength to achieve a positive result and advance to the next stage. Of course, the situation is very difficult and painful, but we know we have nowhere to retreat, we know how we have to start the match, and we will try to make everything go according to our plan.”
“The goals there fell due to our mistakes. I think we made conclusions already during the match – the second half was completely different. We played longer with the ball and had more desire to score ourselves, to come back.
We all understand that it is very important to score the first goal within the first 15–20 minutes. Then the whole game would turn around. Both psychologically we would break ahead, and we could talk about a comeback,” explained O. Verbickas, also answering a question about T. Kvaratskhelia.
– We had individual analyses. The feedback about him was very good. Saba Mamatsashvili also told us that he is a very good player. We prepared for that. Of course, we did not expect him to play from the first minutes, as he usually came off the bench. He is a player of another level, a rising star. I would not say he surprised – I expected good play from him. Of course, as a 16-year-old, he shows really mature play. I think he will reach heights, like his brother.”
“Has anyone of us changed shirts with him? I think not. Now he is not such a star yet. I don’t know, maybe we will try to change now? But now the matches can be more painful for them, now they may not want to change,” O. Verbickas finished with a smile and hope.
If successful, in the third round of the UEFA Conference League qualifiers, Žalgiris would await the loser of the Split Hajduk (Croatia) and Pafos (Cyprus) pair. These teams currently compete one step higher – in the Europa League qualifiers, and the first encounter in Split last week was won 2:0 by Hajduk, represented by Rokas Pukštas.
