The match will start at 21:45 on Monday.
Before the match, the Lithuanian national team coach Edgaras Jankauskas took part in the official press conference, who shared his thoughts about the match against Cyprus played on Friday and the upcoming match on Monday.
“I want to see a team that wants to play football with a ball. We know that we will be playing against a powerful team that plays good football and has been successful in the European Championship until recently.
They have a lot of capable players, they like long shots, that’s kind of their trademark, they score impressive goals. They have strong central defenders, strong forwards, fast players on the edges of the field, so we will have to be very careful in front of our own goal, and when we have the ball, we have to want to play.
Those principles worked in the last game, so we should not go away from them. We have our agreements, principles and outline, we know when we have to do what.
They achieved victory in the first match, they have a bit more positives, and we have to look for resources, because when playing with such a team, the match will be intense and physically we have to be in our best condition”, said the coach of the Lithuanian national team.
After the last European Championship, Romania somewhat unexpectedly changed its head coach – the legendary specialist of the country, Mircea Lucescu, returned to this position after many years.
As the strategist of the Lithuanian team joked, such changes somewhat confused the work of the coaching staff.
“They changed the coach, they ruined the work of our analysts a little bit, but there are no big changes in the game, the coach is really wise not to make big changes. The composition of the players has changed very little, and the line-up has remained the same, very similar to the one in the European championships.
This is a legendary figure in football on a global scale, who has worked in many famous teams, so it will be a great honor to face the team coached by him,” E. Jankauskas shared his thoughts.
Before the match, Romanian journalists said that the Steaua stadium, which can accommodate 32,000 fans and will be almost full tomorrow, is in extremely poor condition.
E. Jankauskas, who managed to test his lawn before the press conference, smiled when asked if the quality of the pitch is really bad here.
“Recently, we have seen worse squares (smiles – ed.). Rokas Lekiat played here a week ago, he said that the pitch was very bad, that there was almost no grass there.
Now those herbs are there, maybe she is still a little weaker, but she is recovering. The pitch itself is flat, but the grass is very fluffy. In this case, there is probably no other option, we will have to play here”, smiled the coach.
2024-09-09 04:30:34