Match №17

The match № 17, group round, group C

January 23rd, 2012, Saint-Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 200 spectators

Belarus – Lithuania 0:1 (0:1)

Referee: Kravchenko, Safiyan, Shimarygin

Belarus: Sоrokо, Klоpotsky, Drigalev (Suvorоv, 22), Vasilevsky, Anyukevich (c), Volovik (Pushnyakov, 86), Glebko (Kurlovich, 24), Yakhno, Volodko (Saroka, 57), Teplov (Novik, 81), Edeshko (Kovalev, 51)

Head coach: Alexey Vergeenko

Lithuania: Simaitis, Jarmalavichius, Miskinis, Pilypas, Ubaitis, Juozaitis, Brokas, Zhulpa (c), Beneta (Jefisov, 84), Paulius (Snapkauskas, 90), Novikovas

Head coach: Vitaliyus Stankevichius

Goal: Zhulpa (21)

Yellow cards: Paulius (22), Novikovas (25, 40), Jarmalavichius (38), Kovalev (88), Snapkauskas (90)

Red cards: Novikovas (40, 2 y.c.), Pilypas (81)

Best players: Anyukevich, Zhulpa

Comments

Head coach of Belarus team Alexey Vergeenko:

– I've got only negative emotions after the match. This is just due to our loss. We can certainly find excuses, saying that there was very little time to recover, that I have done wrong substitutions or to say something else. Today we didn't have the main thing – the active moving on the pitch. We must have gone to the field to show our best even if it was so hard. But previous games made us weaker. Today we finally played in Russia (note at the last briefing the coach complained about the poor level of refereeing, from his point of view). However, even the significant numerical advantage in the two players we could not use. In the last game we lost Buloichik due to the injury. His leg is now in plaster. Your doctors say he will not be able to play for at least a month. This is another challenge for our staff.

Head coach of Lithiuania team Vitaliyus Stankevichius:

– For us it was a kind of test. Despite the fact that at the beginning of the match looking at the actions of the Belarusians we could see they were not physically ready for the game, we couldn't take advantage of their weakness. More over some mistakes of referees influenced us. It's a non sense that two our players are sent off in one game. We never claim to be a football power country, and often face different challenges, but it only makes us stronger. Notwithstanding the foregoing, I am against the introduction of cameras. Football is a live game.