Lithuania A Lyga – Review of Round 17

September 27, 2020

Sunday 27^th, September

FK Banga Gargdzai 1-2 FK Kauno Zalgiris ( att : 800 )

Kauno kept the pressure on the top two with a hard fought victory in Gargdzai for their fourth win in a row. They were fortunate to be leading 1-0 at half-time, only Emmanuel David will know if his flick was intentional, but his efforts to control a pass resulted in him putting Sirgedas clear and his finish gave Banga keeper Driomovas no chance. Banga striker Darius Zubauskas must have run over a black cat on his way to the stadium as either side of the Kauno goal he saw powerful shots hit the woodwork, the first of which, hit the post, then the bar and finally the other post before bouncing to the Kauno keeper.

Kauno were rarely troubled in the second half but it took until added on time before they sealed the win. Veteran Linas Pilibaitis was put clear on goal and although his shot was weak, Driomovas could only parry it, and the slide from Pilibaitis was just about strong enough to send the ball trickling between the keeper and the post and into the net for the ex-Hearts man’s 8^th goal of the season.

There was still time for a consolation goal for Banga, Rudinilson mis-headed a long free-kick across the face of the Kauno goal straight to Rakauskas, who made no mistake.

FK Zalgiris 3-2 FK Panevezys ( att : 400 )  

Ultimately, Zalgiris made hard work of winning a match at one point looked like being a cricket score. Their first goal came in the 17^th minute from the penalty spot after a handball. Videmont’s effort was well saved by Broetto diving to his right, but the referee ruled that the keeper was off his line and ordered a re-take. Videmont made no mistake with his second attempt for his 10^th goal of the season.

There was no disputing the second goal though, Antal picked up a loose ball, turned and sent an unstoppable 25 yard shot into the top corner with Broetto helpless. The Panevezys goal then led a charmed life as Zalgiris missed a host of chances, but the home side eventually made it 3-0 on the stroke of half-time when Kaluderovic spun round his marker and neatly chipped the keeper as he came out and committed himself.

Panevezys got back into the match after 60 minutes when the referee adjusted that Elivelto’s fall to the ground was a foul and Veliulis despatched the penalty. They then thought they had pulled another goal back soon after, but Elivelto’s header was ruled offside. However, Panevezys did get a second goal with 7 minutes remaining, Greek midfielder Kozoronis was allowed to run forward unchallenged before sending a stunning 25 yard effort curling the top far corner, matching Antal’s earlier strike for Zalgiris.

With the clock ticking the normally reliable Berkovec fumbled a low cross from Veliulis, but the ball fell kindly to a Zalgiris defender and the danger passed for Zalgiris to hang on for the three points.

 FK Suduva 7-1 FK Riteriai ( att : 400 )

The Riteriai coach probably had a game-plan of “keep it tight at the start, lads”. If so, the plan was blown apart after 90 seconds by Gorobsov’s sensational 20+ yard swerving effort. Thereafter the gap between top and bottom was emphasised as Suduva strolled to an easy victory, and the margin could have been a lot more. Croatian striker Josip Tadic helped himself to 4 goals, moving joint top in the goal-scoring chart in doing so.

Riteriai’s cause wasn’t helped 25 minutes later by keeper Paukste charging off his line to bring down Sabala as he was heading harmlessly to the bye-line to give away a penalty for Tadic’s first of the evening. A minute later Sabala increased the lead, perhaps fortunate to not be penalised for foul on the defender, and Tadic made it 4-0 five minutes later with a tap-in from 6 feet. Against the run of play, Borovskij ghosted past the sleeping defenders to prod home from two yards at the far post to make it 4-1 at half-time.

Ritterial managed to prevent Suduva from scoring for the first 30 minutes of the second half but three goals in the last 15 minutes, including two more for Tadic, who was left totally unmarked for two simple finishes, wrapped up a satisfactory evening for the champions.

 

 Top Goalscorers

Hugo Videmont ( FK Zalgiris )          10

Josip Tadic ( FK Suduva )                  10

Linas Pilibaitas ( FK Kauno )             8

Mihret Topcagic ( FK Suduva )          5

Liviu Antal ( FK Zalgiris )                 5

Next Fixtures – Round 18

Saturday 2^nd October

FK Riteriai vs FK Banga Gargdzai ( 19.00 local/17.00 UK )

Sunday 3^rd October

FK Kauno Zalgiris vs FK Zalgiris vs ( 15.00 local/13.00 UK )

FK Suduva vs FK Panevezys  ( 17.00 local/15.00 UK )

With just 3 matches each left to play, neither FK Zalgiris or Kauno can afford to drop any points. A draw would mean Suduva could lose their remaining matches with FK Zalgiris and Kauno and still win the league by winning their other two matches. A win for FK Zalgiris though could lead to their home match against Suduva on the final day of the season deciding the title if Suduva have failed to beat Kauno !

 

Review of Estonia Meistriliiga - Round 22

September 26 & 27, 2020

Unfortunately, the big match of the weekend was postponed, as after Flora eliminated Floriana of Malta 4-2 in a Europa League penalty shoot after a 0-0 draw, they invoked an agreement in place from the start of the season that sides qualifying for the final qualifying stages of European competition could postpone their intervening league matches to allow for more preparation time. In Flora’s case, they now face a trip to Dinamo Zagreb on October 1^st.

In the absence of the Tallinn derby, the remaining matches were :

 Saturday 26^th September

Viljandi Tulevik 1-1 Kuressaare ( att : 443 )

In their battle against relegation, Kuressaare grabbed what could be an important point which was a fair reward for their attempts to gain all three points. After and open and even opening half-hour, Tulevik’s mask wearing Sander Kapper went down very easily when harmlessly heading towards the bye-line and Riiberg converted the penalty Panenka style.

Trailing at half-time, Kuressaare were soon on level terms when Kriisa was the first to react to the loose ball after confusion from a long throw, and drilled a left footed shot across the face of the goal and into the far corner.

Thereafter Kuressaare looked the more likely winners. Soomre hit the post and Mannilaan forced a good save from Tulevik keeper Nomm. Tulevik rarely threatened and despite a red card in added on time to Kuressaare’s Saar, had to settle for their first draw of the season. 

 Paide Linnameeskond 4-1 Tallina Kalev ( att : 160 )

As anticipated Paide coasted to a home win over the league’s back-markers.  Their crisp, fluent attacking play led to two first half goals for Henri Anier whereas his brother Hannes could only hit the post for Kalev. Tamberg did take advantage of slack defending though to keep the deficit to only 2-1 at the break.

Deabeas extended the lead shortly after half-time with a deflected shot after a weaving run, and a soft penalty enabled Tur to complete the rout as Paide extended their winning run to 8 matches.

Sunday 27^th September

Tallinna JK Legion 3-1 Tartu Tammeka ( att : 76 )

Legion continued their recent up turn in form with a deserved second home win of the season. They took the lead in the 36 minute when Tammeka keeper Kiidjarv mis-punched a long throw back over his head and predator Nikita Andreev was alert to prod home for his 6 goal in 7 games.

Kiidjarv partially redeemed himself with two fine saves early in the second half before Tammeka equalised in the 63 minute from what was probably a training ground move. From a corner a low ball was delivered well short of the near post and back-heeled towards the edge of area for Dudarev to send a left footed shot into far corner from around 15 yards.

However, parity was short lived as in the 71^st  minute substitute Vnukov entered the fray and  with his first touch sent a free-kick over the wall and into the corner. Tammeka responded well  and Legion were forced to head a goal-bound attempt off the line. As Tartu pressed for the equaliser, Legion were able to settle the match in injury time when a counter attack put Gviniashvili clear and he made no mistake from the one on one against the keeper.

Legion move out of the bottom two for the first time this season.

Nomme Kalju 2-1 Narva Trans ( att : 241 )

Nomme gave an impressive first half performance and should have settled the match by the half-time break. Narva seemed to have few answers to Nomme’s  swift attacking play and looked decidedly weak in the air.

Narva fell behind in the 8^th minute when keep Alexsei Matrossov flapped at a high cross he could easily have caught and conceded a corner. Sandoval managed to get a poor header onto the corner but the deflection off a defender wrong-footed the keeper to give Nomme a 1-0 lead.

Nomme extended their lead midway through the first half when Matrossov again failed to deal with another high cross which should have been caught and resulted in a throw-in, from which the long throw was headed on for Subbotin to head home from 2 yards as the keeper and marking defender failed to react. Reintam should have added a third but his header from just outside the 6 yard box came back off the post and Matrossov did well to block the follow-up shot. Nomme could have been four or five up at the interval.

Narva improved after the break and neutralised the threat from Nomme. However, they rarely looked like getting back into the match although Appiah pulled a goal back for Narva three minutes from time, calmly rounding the keeper after his intended through ball had been deflected back to him and put him clear on goal, Nomme held out for the win though.

Levadia vs Flora - Postponed to November 4^th to allow Flora to prepare for their Europa League match against Dinamo Zagreb !

Summary

With Levadia not playing, Nomme took the opportunity to move up to third place, whilst Paide extended the gap from third place. At the bottom, despite Kuressare picking up a useful point, Legion moved out of the relegation place off place with their win over Tammeka and dragging Narva back into the relegation battle.