Says more lenient passport regulations give the Maltese team an advantage to find new players from abroad
Coach Edgaras Jankauskas has dismissed suggestions that Lithuania will change their style of play when they face Malta in a World Cup qualifier on Thursday (kick-off: 5pm).
Lithuania head into the match on the back of a poor run of results as they have only two draws to show from their last five matches, one of which came against Malta in June’s World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium.
However, coach Jankauskas has played down his team’s poor run of play and said that the team’s style of play would not change.
“Our attitude or philosophy will not change even if 10 or 15 players change,” Jankauskas said.
“This is the path we have to follow, knowing our strengths, weaknesses, and how to mask them, so nothing will change here.
“I want my players to show a lot of fighting spirit, as that is essential, and they need to trust in one another. That is what we are here for, to charge those players and I think that we are doing very well in this so far.
“I do not doubt that tomorrow we will see the national team that we are used to – playing beautiful football and fighting all the way for the win.”
Jankauskas said that Malta has one major advantage over Lithuania as it can bank on much easier legislation when it comes to handing a passport to foreign-based players.
Coach Emilio Di Leo will be without Teddy Teuma and James Carragher, who are recovering from injury, but can bank on two new acquisitions, namely midfielder Jake Brimmer, who is based in Australia, and Irvin Cardona, who plays for French side St Etienne.
In Lithuania, a foreigner can be given a passport if he has been residing there for ten years, as opposed to Malta’s five.
“Teddy Teuma and James Carragher were players who fit well in that team, but they have now naturalised two more players,” Jankauskas said.
“They have brought in a striker from Saint-Etienne (Irvin Cardona), who is a high-level player, born in France. I don’t know if his grandmother or great-grandmother has any ties to Malta, but it certainly shows their desire to look for players to help their national team.
“For them, the path is somewhat easier than for us when it comes to dual citizenship. They lost two but acquired two more new players of a really good level.”
Jankauskas admitted that he had little time to work with his players this month.
“Time was enough, maybe the agendas were different due to the lack of days, but the guys withstood the huge amount of information they received. There is a lot of information; we want to be very well-prepared not only physically, but also theoretically and tactically.
“Of course, losing players due to injury is painful. We always hope that players do not get injured, and if they do, that they recover quickly. We have a strong team now, I think it is the best possible squad at the moment, and with this group of matches, we will go into tomorrow’s match with a lot of determination.”
The Lithuanian coach said that he expects a tough match against Malta, and it will be important that the team keeps fighting in difficult moments
“There will be moments during the match which will be very difficult, and others where we fail to reach our objectives. If we go back to the last match against Malta, we played a very good 60 minutes but failed to find the breakthrough, after that we suffered a lot.
“There comes a turning point in every game, so I say that in every game, there will be good moments and others that will be more difficult.
“I think we have demonstrated more than once that when it is difficult, even in matches that we ended up losing, that we preserve our fighting spirit, faith, and desire to turn the game in our favour.”
