Smeliniai 0 - 4 Zverys (392491629)

The crowd of 6499 turning up at Smeliniai Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Patrik Flinkhult was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Xavier Aguado and Joost de Jongh. Smeliniai started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. Lineup: Titkinas - Babiliauskas, Madeikis, Podžiulis, Užandenis - Parafinavičius, Šicus, Lienkevičius, Baraslevičius - Zamelis, Vitašenkovas.

A 4-3-3 alignment was the formation of choice for Zverys. Starters: Igliukas - Prenskas, Butkauskas, Posudnevskis, Grossler - Højsgaard, Persson, Morrone - Mažiulis, Tarruella, Janavicus.

The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave F. Vitašenkovas from Smeliniai a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 22 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! J. Persson behaved like an inexperienced youth player after 23 minutes as he gave the ball away to V. Šicus. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. The referee showed Smeliniai's V. Šicus the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Some quick footwork on the left side of the field 33 minutes into the match left Zverys's S. Janavicus completely free to score. 0 - 1 for the visitors. With the scoreboard showing that 34 minutes had been played, Zverys nearly put themselves up another goal after G. Mažiulis came through on the left. Fortunately for the home crowd, the keeper made the save. A. Parafinavičius of Smeliniai received a yellow card after 35 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. S. Janavicus of Zverys took advantage of a mistake on the home side's right after 36 minutes which increased the away team's lead to 0 - 2. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 2. Zverys had most of the ball, with 58 percent of possession.

Unsportsmanlike behaviour by F. Vitašenkovas rendered him his second booking of the match, and Smeliniai had to finish the game with a reduced squad. With 74 minutes played, a quick exchange of passes on the left wing freed J. Tarruella of Zverys to slip through the defence and score another goal for the visitors. That made the score 0 - 3. S. Janavicus slipped and slithered in the wet grass. His usual rapid runs were nowhere to be seen today. 82 minutes into the match, S. Janavicus came through the middle and almost added to his team's lead, but the shot went wide. After 87 minutes, Zverys's M. Morrone burst through the central defence and let loose a cannonball of a shot, scoring for 0 - 4. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Zverys lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by Zverys, with 56 percent of the ball.

Smeliniai's top performer was clearly V. Zamelis. P. Titkinas turned in a dismal performance, however. Most important Zverys player was M. Grossler. However, S. Igliukas made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 4.