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LITHUANIA – ESTONIA 0:2 (0:1)

Match for the 13th place

January 11th, 2016, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 150 spectators

Best players: Artiom Goncarenko, Romet Ridamae

Post match comments

Svajunas Cesnulis, Head coach of team Lithuania:

– First of all, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Estonia with a well deserved win. The result speaks for itself. A number of mistakes in defense and attack let us down. We've also had chances; for instance, when it was 0:1, we did not convert a good one. Maybe the game picture could have changed, who knows. We have what we have. And in the next episode we missed an attack and our goalkeeper had to foul in the penalty area and was sent off. And once we lost a man it became difficult to oppose Estonia. We finished playing on Granatkin Memorial. Let me thank the organizers for a great event. We liked it a lot. I can hardly say when else we get a chance to play on such a pitch and against such teams. When else can we play Japan, for example? It's a huge experience for us, especially given the fact we've become participants of the elite round this year.

– Two Baltic teams were playing today. Can this be considered as "derby"?

– Yes, I think so. Our preparation for every game is the same though. It's just that we've played with Estonia on the Baltic Cup recently that was held in Lithuania and we lost there as well. The folks wanted to take revenge, to get even.

– Unlike other teams, your guys had a mild schedule on this tournament as all your matches were played with a day interval. Do you consider this to be an advantage?

– I wouldn't say we had any sort of advantage. It's probably more difficult to play two days straight, I just can't compare. But still we were trying to use rotation as much as possible to hit both targets – to see other players in action and to give more time to recover.

Marko Lelov, Head coach of team Estonia:

– The tournament has ended for us, but I can't help asking myself: did we really deserve the place that our team took? The 13th place, next to the last in the standings, doesn't reflect the real situation, to my view. You can see yourself: out of five matches played we have only one defeat, three draws and one win. On the other hand, it's our own fault, for we were leading at least in two matches against Finland and Kazakhstan, but finally let the wins slip away. We need to bring up our character, first of all. Because when you are leading and the match is still not over your lead doesn't mean anything. All the matches finish with a final whistle. So, summarizing it in the whole, I have ambiguous emotions. On the one hand, I am content that I had a chance to look closer at my team and make certain conclusions. On the other hand, we had all the chances to get to semifinals.

– Do you consider the game today to be successful for your team?

– The players managed to complete the tasks set before them. We were able to build the attacks, to score two goals and not to concede any. And what is also pleasant is that our central backs played much better and more sensibly today.

– It's become a football trend lately to try to score with a direct kick from a corner. Your player also tried it today. How do you treat it?

– If this risk is reasonable I approve it. Why not?

– You've finished your performance on this tournament. Which match of the Estonian team did you like most?

– The best game for us, judging by the score, is today's. We won 2:0. But then, the worst was against Russia, because we were blown out and conceded three times in 4 minutes. From the psychological point of view I would note the game with Moldova, where we were losing and managed to level the situation up.

#27 Lithuania - Estonia