V. Čeburinas and V. Venslovaitienė are digging a deeper hole: Vilnius 'Žalgiris' lost to the understrength Kaunas team

2025-08-04 23:23 © E. Žaldario/fkzalgiris.lt

In the main match of the 23rd round, the teams of Vilnius "Žalgiris" and "Kauno Žalgiris" faced off. After scoring a goal in each half, the Kaunas team celebrated a victory with a score of 2:1 (1:0).

The meeting began with a protest from the home fans against the head coach Vladimir Čeburinas. Shortly thereafter, the action moved onto the field – Liviu Antalis raced against the Kaunas defenders, but at the last moment, the Romanian was stopped by Tautvydas Burdzilauskas.

Just over halfway through the first half, the first goal was scored – taking advantage of an opponent's mistake and earning a free kick, Ernestas Burdzilauskas stood over the ball himself and sent it into the goal defended by Carlos Olses from about 18 meters.

In the 34th minute, the home team's defender Bruno Tavares also tried from a similar position, but his shot went just wide of the goal.

As the half was nearing its end, veteran L. Antalis won a duel in the Kaunas penalty area, but his shot went straight to goalkeeper Tomáš Švedkauskas.

As the second half started, guest forward Romualdas Janson rushed into a counterattack, and after the forward's shot, goalkeeper C. Olses had to work hard.

In the 63rd minute, T. Burdzilauskas tried to follow in his brother's footsteps, but the young full-back failed to score from a good position.

As the game was coming to an end, Vasilije Radenovičius received a second yellow card and left his team at a disadvantage, and a few minutes later, Amine Benchaib, who appeared as a substitute, scored with an accurate shot to seal the match.

Already in the referee's added time, B. Tavares reduced the deficit, but that was all the Vilnius team managed to achieve.

Eivinas Černiauskas's students continue to dominate the championship with 49 points, while Vilnius "Žalgiris" has 28 points and sits in seventh place.