Defeated Lithuania, Serbia Maintains Hope to Entering the 2020 European Cup

DBasia.news –  After beating hosts, Lithuania, with a score of 2-1 at the LFF Vilnius Stadium, Monday (10/14) local time, the Serbian national team kept their hopes of qualifying for the 2020 European Cup finals.

The victory leaves Serbia third in the Group B standings in the qualifying phase with 10 points or one point adrift of Portugal (11) in second place, UEFA notes.

Portugal’s defeat to Ukraine (19) in another match helped Serbia open more opportunities. Ukraine had already qualified for the finals as Group B champions thanks to victories over Portugal.

Despite appearing as a guest team, Serbia had no trouble dominating the game against the Lithuanian Group B caretaker team.

Serbia had no less than 58 percent possession of the ball throughout the match and fired 17 attempted shots, eight of which met the target.

However, Serbia could only open the scoring three minutes into the second half by Aleksandar Mitrovic’s close kick that welcomed Adem Ljajic’s pass.

Mitrovic only needed five minutes to score his second goal and double the advantage of Serbia, again utilizing Ljajic’s pass.

Lithuania was able to reduce the lag in the 79th minute when Modestas Vorobjovas’s bait was completed well by Donatas Kazlauskas.

Serbia tried to secure an early victory in the 87th minute, but Mitrovic’s chance to package the trigger was thwarted by goalkeeper, Vytautas Cerniauskas.

Serbia’s victory was almost erased when Lithuania had a chance in injury time, luckily Karolis Laukzemis’s close-range shot was off target. Serbia won 2-1 over Lithuania when the game came to an end.

Line-up:

Lithuania (4-3-2-1): Vytautas Cerniauskas; Rolandas Baravykas, Linas Klimavicius, Edvinas Girdvainis, Saulius Mikoliunas; Paulius Golubickas, Domantas Simkus, Modestas Vorobjovas; Ovidijus Verbickas, Justas Lasickas; Deivydas Matulevicius

Coach: Valdas Urbonas

Serbia (4-2-3-1): Marko Dmitrovic; Nemanja Miletic, Nikola Milenkovic, Aleksandar Kolarov, Filip Mladenovic; Nemanja Maksimovic, Luka Milivojevic; Filip Kostic, Adem Ljajic, Nemanja Radonjic; Aleksandar Mitrovic

Coach: Ljubisa Tumbakovic