Žalgiris knocked out in Malta lost a significant UEFA payout.

2025-07-15 23:20 © E. Žaldario/fkzalgiris.lt

The Vilnius "Žalgiris” team unpleasantly surprised its fans.

In the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, Vladimir Čeburino's charges managed to squander a two-goal lead (the overall series result was 2:2) and lost to the "Hamrun Spartans” club after a penalty shootout.

Having exited the prestigious tournament, the Vilnius team lost a significant amount of guaranteed prize money.

If they had progressed to the next stage of the Champions League qualifiers and even later lost, they would have received a total of 1.71 million euros in UEFA payments.

Now, with "Žalgiris” moving on to play in the Conference League qualifiers and facing failure against the loser of the "Shelbourne” and "Linfield” tie, they will receive a maximum of nearly one million euros.

It should not be forgotten that if they had defeated the Maltese, the Vilnius team would have generated considerable revenue from ticket sales, as the legendary Kyiv "Dynamo” team would have visited Vilnius.