Liepkalnis a week ago had become a place where football logic temporarily lost its power. Žalgiris, carrying a three-goal deficit, swept Tbilisi Dinamo here 7:2 and proved that very big miracles sometimes fit in cramped stands. But this time the reserve of luck was already clearly empty.
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Instead of another fairy tale, the Vilnius stadium became the place of Hajduk’s liberation.
The Split club had not won eleven consecutive away matches in European tournaments, but broke its gloomy travel chain precisely in the Lithuanian capital.
Liepkalnis, which until recently was breaking football laws in favor of Žalgiris, on Thursday helped the guests shake off what in Croatia had already begun to be called the curse of away games.
The first blow of Liepkalnis evening reached Žalgiris before the stands had warmed up. Already in the 4th minute, Ivan Lytvynenko lost the ball, Danny Lupano was left to watch the opponent’s back receding in a speed duel, and Juryjus Kendyš, clumsily rushing to the ball rebounding from the end line, fouled Michele Šego in the penalty area.
The Dutch referee Marc Nagtegaal waited a moment, then slowly pointed to the penalty spot. Vilnius mayor Valdas Benkunskas, watching the match in the VIP stand, briefly left diplomacy at the municipality – spat out a harsh “Go to h…”, grabbed his head, and together with the whole stadium watched as M. Šego confidently converted the penalty.
After ten minutes, Žalgiris ordered a second misfortune in almost the same way. Marin Šotiček ran into the penalty area as if through an open turnstile, and Deividas Šešplaukis, lacking arguments, simply took down the Croatian without much ceremony.
M. Šego stepped up to the ball again, but this time the scenario did not repeat. Vincent Šarkauskas guessed the direction of the shot, saved the penalty, and at least temporarily stopped the conveyor of Žalgiris defensive mistakes.
In the 34th minute, Žalgiris finally managed to lull the guests’ defense for a moment. Stanislav Bilenkyi cut through the Croatian lines with a precise pass, and Nikola Petković, timely entering the penalty area, found himself where a striker belongs.
Hajduk goalkeeper Toni Silić came out indecisively – he touched the ball, but it still rolled into the net from N. Petković’s foot. Liepkalnis exploded, the scoreboard lit up the second unit. For the Serbian, it was already the eleventh goal in the last eleven matches.
But along with the dark clouds that rolled over Liepkalnis, a new misfortune caught up with Žalgiris. Just as the stadium staff began distributing white and green raincoats in the stands, M. Šego created a small football miracle – with a perfectly executed free kick from afar, he sent the ball into the very top corner of the goal.
The rain poured down, Liepkalnis fell silent for a moment, and the hosts went into halftime again chasing the opponents – 1:2.
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In the 56th minute, the Vilnius evening darkened even more. Albanian Adrion Pajaziti, born in London, unleashed another impressive long shot, and V. Šarkauskas could only respond with a glance. The ball fluttered in the hosts’ net for the third time.
In the 71st minute, Hajduk launched another exemplary attack. It was started by Rokas Pukštas, and the final point was put by Dallison De Almeida, whose fourth goal finally tore away any remaining intrigue from the match.
Three minutes later, the son of Lithuanian emigrants himself shone in full glory. R. Pukštas intercepted a careless pass from Danny Lupano, made a wonderful raid into the penalty area, and shot from close range irresistibly.
Emotions caught, the 21-year-old midfielder ran towards the home stands and celebrated the goal as if he had forgotten his Lithuanian roots. The response came immediately – beer mugs started flying in his direction. Only after cooling down a bit did R. Pukštas raise his hands and apologize.
In the 86th minute, Žalgiris player Marko Capan had to raise his hands in apology. The Croatian, who appeared on the field after a substitution, sent the ball into the upper corner of the goal with a wonderful free kick and wronged the club where he grew up, spent many years, and wore the captain’s armband of the youth team.
“First of all, I would like to thank the fans. Although the match took place on a working day, they gathered in large numbers and supported us until the very last minute. Speaking about the match itself, today we clearly saw the difference in class. We saw what speed of play, technique, faster decisions, and efficiency mean. Today we saw many goals, many beautiful goals. Yes, the 2:5 result is not in our favor and, of course, is not good, but if we evaluate from our team’s side, we did not give up. We wanted to attack, tried to play our football, created really good chances, and scored two goals. On the other hand, our defensive problems were equally visible. We defended too weakly, so we conceded so many,” summarized Žalgiris coach A. Skerla.
According to the coach, the numbers on the scoreboard are a bit too harsh.
“What didn’t work? Maybe it is possible to play better against them. I believe it is possible, but luck is also needed. But you shouldn’t rely on luck; it won’t be there all the time… Simply, we played against a individually much stronger team that was very seriously prepared from the start. It wasn’t that they underestimated us. We saw that in the first 15–20 minutes – they immediately showed their strength, showed their speed. We made mistakes, conceded two penalties, one was saved. But from the start, it was clear they didn’t come here just to play football,” said the coach.
Asked by 15min what tasks Žalgiris will face in a week in Split, when all intrigue has already evaporated, A. Skerla was not yet willing to look that far.
“Give me a break, time to think… We lost 2:5, so I wouldn’t want to go there just to play football. We’ll see what we can surprise them with, or if we can surprise them at all. We need to see what didn’t work for us, where they were better, how much better. Mistakes are always mistakes; they need to be fixed and avoided. But when you face such speeds as they have – it’s very hard to defend. It seems like moments when you are balanced, but individually they still outplayed us. That’s where the threat came from every time. How to protect yourself from that? You can park the bus, wait, watch, and not let them play, but that contradicts my philosophy. Yes, we lost the match, but I saw many good positive moments when we attacked against a good team and created chances and scored goals. There was no plan to sit back and wait,” analyzed A. Skerla.
“It was nice to play here. We managed to win and I am glad that we broke a several-year streak of not winning away matches in European cups. So I think we broke a certain barrier. Of course, it wasn’t easy, but we really played good football, although the opponents also had enough chances. So it’s never easy with us. Something always has to happen. But probably such things help to break down the walls that have been stopping you so far. I hope this was a turning point,” said Hajduk coach Gonzalo Garcia about the difficult start of the season and the victory in Vilnius.
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