Lithuanian football team is seriously preparing for technically-oriented football with Armenia
4 minute read
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS: Armenian National Football team is preparing for a friendly match due to take place with Lithuania on November 14. Armenian National Team Footballers headed by chief coach Vardan Minasyan are going to complete the year with friendly match at its home ground . Armenpress had an exclusive interview with Lithuanian National Football Team chief coach Csaba Laszlo.
-Your expectations refer to the match with Armenia?
-It is a friendly game so obviously result is not our main aim. The squad has changesas we will invite some younger players from the Under-21 team. We would alsolike players who have not had many chances to play for the national team this year.Another thing is that we would like to stabilize our performance with the view to nextyear’s FIFA World Cup qualifying games.
-What kind of opponent Armenian team is for you? Your opinion aboutArmenian National team?
-It is a team who I know has been progressing lately. I know they had some verygood results in the last qualifying campaign and until the end had a chance to qualifyfor the playoffs. Even now, Armenia is in a very tight group and have three pointsafter three games, which is not bad.
-What information do you have about Armenian national football team andArmenian football in general?
-I have to admit that I’m not really familiar with Armenian football since I have notfaced your teams in my coaching career. The last time Lithuania played Armenia Iwas not here so it’s going to be a new experience for me.From what I know in general, Armenia prefer to play technically-oriented footballwith fast players, who like to dribble and look for one against one situations.
-What Armenian footballers do you know?
Personally I only know about Henrikh Mkhitaryan, since he plays for ShakhtarDonetsk in the UEFA Champions league and so far has had a very good season. Thefact that they won against Chelsea tells you a lot. Anyway, our national team staff is quite familiar with Russian and Ukrainianchampionships - where half of your team play - so I think they will brief me more onyour squad in the coming weeks.
-You are included in World Football Qualification G group. Could youcompare Armenian team with the teams included in G group as to the play style and strategy?
-It is difficult to compare but If I need to pick one team maybe it would be LatviaBecause just like us, to succeed they have to play a more-counter attacking styleagainst the top-rated teams. I also know that you have beaten Slovakia twice in theprevious qualifying cycle so I hope we can learn from that because our next game isin Slovakia.
-How you estimate your chances in World Football Qualifying stage?
-We have many home games next year so for us it’s now taking one game at a timeand try to win in every match. Then we will see where it takes us.Realistically, we can see Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina are the two strongestteams in the group. We can dream of second place since in football many things arepossible but aiming for 3rd-4th positions are more realistic.We will also have to compete against Latvia which is always like a derby, anemotional game and sometimes unpredictable. Our minimal objective was to beatLiechtenstein twice – since last time they stole points from us twice. We already wonagainst them away so it’s one small step forward.
Interview by Varvara Hayrapetyan