FK ŽALGIRIS VILNIUS (Lithuanian Football Federation Stadium)

A LYGA, FK ŽALGIRIS 2-0 FK PALANGA, ATTENDANCE: 230

After yesterday's trip to Kaunas, it was back to the fabulous capital city of Vilnius for the second game of a midweek Lithuanian double header. 

Futbolo Klubo Žalgris are one of Lithuania's most successful club with 7 titles since the A Lyga was established in 1991. Prior to that the club competed in the Soviet Union football system where their highest finish was third in the top flight in 1987. The club qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time as a result of this finish but they lost to Austria Wien in the first round. The club left the Soviet league in 1990 to join the Baltic League with other clubs from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, before becoming founder members of the A Lyga.

The club run into problems in 2008 when their owner Vadim Kastujev was arrested in Moscow. The club failed to meet the licensing requirements to compete in the A Lyga and were subsequently demoted in 2009. The fans of the club founded a new club VMFD Žalgiris and regrouped in the I Lyga, winning promotion back to the top flight in 2010.

The club were crowned A Lyga Champions in four consecutive seasons from 2013 to 2016 and they reverted back to their original name of FK Žalgris Vilnius in 2015.

FK Žalgris Vilnius play their home games at the three sided, 5,000 capacity, LFF National Stadium. The ground is less than 1km from the main train station in Vilnius. The stadium was originally home to FK Vėtra and was known as the Vėtra Stadium. When FK Vėtra went bankrupt in 2010 the stadium was taken over by the Lithuanian Football Federation and renamed the LFF (Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija) Stadium.

The national team have played their home games at the ground since 2005 - Lithuania were in the same World Cup Qualifying group as England and Scotland, who were their last two home opponents in qualifying. The ground is on the flight path of the airport so if you are a plane spotter then you are onto a winner.

After last night's experience, this evening actually felt like a matchday. The Zalgiris ultras in the corner created a bit of noise and, even though there was only 230 present, you felt the hustle and bustle of a football game. You could also get yourself a beer as well and some very tasty (deep fried) garlic rye bread strips. Perfect for soakage! One similar thing to the ground in Kaunas though is that the ticket office was the front seat of a car. The cost of admission was 2 euros more expensive though!

The game, although not a classic, was entertaining enough. The home side started brightly with plenty of possession but it wasn't until the 21st minute that they made the breakthrough when Tomas Szymkowicz let fly from 25 yards and the ball sailed into the net.

After 35 minutes Palanga were given a glorious chance to equalise when they were awarded a penalty. Unfortunately for them Gvidas Juška's spot kick came back off the upright (video clip below).

After a slow start to the second half Zalgiris were reduced to 10 men when Slavko Blagojevicius received two quick yellow cards. Naturally Zalgiris were happy to defend their lead and play on the counter when the opportunity arose. It was on one of these counters that Zalgiris doubled their lead when, after 81 minutes, Liviu Antali rounded Tadas Norbutas in the Palanga goal to seal the victory. The home side finished the game with nine men when Linas Klimavičius received a second yellow card in stoppage time.

So a season that began in Ružomberok in Slovakia back in August finally reached it's conclusion this evening. Once again it has been a fantastic adventure across home and abroad. I have been to some brilliant places and met some great people along the way. Hopefully I will see you all soon when I start another season of travelling in a few weeks time.

Thank you for reading, have a great summer!

FC STUMBRAS (Darius and Girėnas Stadium)

A LYGA, FC STUMBRAS 1-0 FK TRAKAI, ATTENDANCE: 100

After our adventures in Kaliningrad and Gdansk the party of seven had dwindled down to just two and we decided to cross the border in Lithuania for some A Lyga action.

There are no trains from Poland to Lithuania on a Monday to Thursday so it was a choice of either nine hours on a bus or an early start and a few hours on a plane, via Stockholm, for just a few Euro's more. We took the latter option and were in Vilnius in time for a liquid lunch and to enjoy some World Cup games on the TV.

From Vilnius it was a train west to the city of Kaunas for the the first game of a midweek double header. The 105km train journey took around 90 minutes from Vilnius and we treated ourselves to a first class seat, in an air conditioned carriage and with free wi-fi for 6 euros. Once again our European friends make a mockery of our transport system.

The National Football Academy of Lithuania was set up in 2006 as a training academy for the best players in the country. In 2013 the NFA set up a team to enter the league system and called itself FC Stumbras. The players were mostly youth players but experience was added as the club progressed up the leagues.

The club reached the A Lyga in 2015 after winning the I Lyga title in 2014. Stumbras finished in their highest ever position of 6th in 2016 but last season they had to win a relegation play-off (they beat FK Banga Gargždai 5-1 on aggregate) to remain in the A-Lyga. However in 2017 the club beat FK Žalgiris 1-0 to lift the Lithuanian League Cup, so the club will play in the Europa League for the first time this year.

Stumbras were hosting FK Trakai this evening and there was some Evertonian interest as, amongst their squad, Trakai boast the former Toffee's winger Diniyar Bilyaletdinov. The Russian was a peripheral figure at Goodison making 77 appearances, 29 of which were from the bench, but he did score a couple of cracking goals in his time on Merseyside. He did start the game tonight but was largely anonymous before eventually hobbling off injured after 35 minutes.

There was also some Welsh interest as Trakai will also be travelling to North Wales, well England to be more precise, next week as they have been drawn against Cefn Druids in the Europa League, but the first leg will be played at Park Hall in Oswestry. After watching Trakai tonight I would say The Ancients have a chance as nothing I witnessed would especially worry me, but as is usual it will probably be the match fitness/sharpness that will be the difference. That's what normally does for Welsh teams at this stage of competition.

I was sat next to a lad from Lithuania at the game in Kaliningrad and he had warned the standard of football in the A Lyga was not great and the game tonight did nothing to convince me he was wrong. It was a poor, poor game in all honesty. 

The match was settled in favour of the home side with a strike from Brazillian Marcos Soares Jr. after 32 minutes, when he fired home after latching onto a defence splitting pass from Jardel Nazarene (click here). The home side had a few chances to make the game safe in the second half, and nearly paid for thoses misses as Trakai went close late on, but the game ended 1-0.

Originally built in 1925, The Darius and Girėnas Stadium (named after the Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas who died in a crash near the end of an attempted non-stop flight from New York to Lithuania) is a brutal concrete communist athletics stadium, typical of its era. The ground was upgraded to UEFA standards in 1998.

Next month the ground is due to be demolished and rebuilt, when it will be fully enclosed and the seating areas covered, with a capacity of around 15,000. Hopefully the new ticket office within the stadium will be an office rather than the seat of a car and hopefully there will be a refreshment kiosk as, on a very warm evening, there was nothing on sale at the ground.

There was certainly no need for 15,000 seats tonight as the crowd just about reached 100 and quite a few of them were groundhoppers from Germany and Switzerland.

Pre-match was spent in the fabulous Hop Doc with plenty of local beers to get through but, football and beer aside, the city of Kaunas is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Lithuania.

 Tickets please!