Although the Lithuanian national football team has won this trophy 10 times, the last time it managed to do so was in 2010, when our team, then ranked 55th in the world, triumphed in the old Darius and Girėnas Stadium.
Now, Lithuanians are ranked 148th.
Latvia, our opponent in the semi-finals of the four-team tournament starting on Saturday, is in 136th place and has won the Baltic Cup the most times among the Baltic states – 14.
At a glance
If Lithuanians manage to win on Saturday, the winner of the Estonia and Faroe Islands pair will await our team in the final.
In case of an Estonian victory, our team would play the final next Tuesday in Tallinn.
If the Faroe Islands win, the decisive battle for the trophy would take place in the same Darius and Girėnas Stadium.
A lot is at stake for this match.
The Lithuanian Football Federation has set a goal for coach Edgaras Jankauskas to win the Baltic Cup and the Nations League D division, which starts in autumn.
The Federation has allocated a 100,000 euro bonus for winning the Baltic Cup competition, and another 150,000 for achieving the second part of the goal.
Latvia arrived in Kaunas without several key players, but the Lithuanian national team is also without a host of reliable footballers (Edvinas Gertmonas, Pijus Širvys, Paulius Golubickas, Gratas Sirgėdas, Kipras Kažukolovas, Fiodoras Černychas, Artemijus Tutyškinas).
“We would really like this match to show the depth of our team,” E. Jankauskas said on the eve of the match. – It should show that even after losing so many players, we are able to maintain the same capability. We will have debutants; they are in very good form, and we are certainly looking at this semi-final very positively.
15min journalist Marius Bagdonas will be working at the stadium on Saturday, providing comments and evaluations from match participants, and from 4 PM, we invite you to follow the most important events of the match in this text.
