Sūduva struck the champions during added time

2026-05-23 22:56 © V. Kuralavičiaus

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in the 15th round of the TOPLYGA, the players of Marijampolė "Sūduva" faced off against "Kauno Žalgiris". The green and whites could not break an eight-match winless streak in their encounters. The Marijampolė team secured a victory with a score of 2:1 (0:0) during added time.

From the first minutes, the guests actively started the match, and in the 4th minute, they made a dangerous long-range shot, but Ignas Plūkas showed off his goalkeeping skills once again this season and saved the shot.

Although the Kaunas team controlled the ball for a larger part of the first half, they lacked sharpness in their attacks. Patiently and compactly defending, the hosts looked for their chances by making counterattacks. Faustas Steponavičius had several opportunities to shoot at the goal, but they could not score in the first half.

After the break, the situation did not change much at first – there were plenty of duels, contact, and fouls on the field. Ultimately, the sticky match became more lively when, in the 59th minute, after a good Yusuke Omori pass from the flank, Ibrahimas Seck hit the ball accurately into the bottom right corner of the goal. Just a few minutes later, the players from Sūduva had several more dangerous situations, but Tomas Švedkauskas saved his team's goal.

Already in added time, Anton Tsiurupin managed to equalize the score. When it seemed that the match would end in a draw, in the last attack, the best player of the match, Y. Omori, found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. He seized his opportunity and accurately directed the ball into the net, securing the victory for "Sūduva".

Marijampolė "Sūduva" added to their points tally and climbed to 5th place in the tournament table with 22 points. Meanwhile, the reigning champions, Kauno "Žalgiris", remain in 1st place but continue to drop points. The Vilnius district team, "TransiNVEST", could close the gap even further in this round.