Lithuania v Belarus
Venue : Kaunas, Lithuania.
Wednesday, 11th August 2010 - Kickoff

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Lithuania (51st World ranking)

Qualifiers for the last World Cup started very well for Lithuania, with a 3-0 victory in Romania and victory against Austria at home 2-0. But later things came back to "normal" and they lost game after game and finished 4th in the group.

After that Portuguese coach Couseiro resigned and Lithuanian Football Federation appointed new manager R.Zutautas. A lot of football people were surprised that ex-player of national team went straight to manage national team, without any experience. The last few years he was in business, not even in football world. But it is just the way it is in Lithuanian football.

First game for Zutautas was friendly in March away against Ukraine. He declared that will try to use more young players, but the game was lost 4-0.

For the game against Belarus he called 20 players, including all usual suspects, mostly from abroad. But 6-7 from them usually sitting on the bench in their teams and not even getting in starting eleven.

Lithuanians usually are strong in defense, but only M. Stankevicius (Sampdoria) and M. Zaliukas (Hearts) are now playing for their teams. Midfield is experienced D. Semberas (CSKA Moscow) and Cesnauskis (Aris) but others are inexperienced youngsters, who can’t produce anything so far.

And there is always a problem with scoring, with the only sunshine being D.Sernas, who is playing only in polish second division. He is young and real fighter, but so far his goals were coming only in polish league. He still needs time to adapt to the team.

The Lithuanian midfield are more destroying than creating and overall there are problems all over the place, in the squad, in the manager and in federation.

Lithuania friendly games in 2010 :
Lithuania – Estonia 2:0
Lithuania – Latvia 0:0
Ukraine – Lithuania 4:0

Belarus (77th World Ranking)

I think this team is improving every year. 3-4 years ago Lithuanians played on the same level. But Lithuanians stayed were they been, and Belarus are going forward.

The Belarusian club champions BATE played last year in Champions League groups. This year they are still in Europa League, Dinamo Minsk also eliminated Macabi Haifa. It shows that Belarus football is on the rise.

German coach Bernd Stange have all players available and said it will be final preparation before qualifying game in September against France.

The only players not fit 100 percent are A.Hleb and Kutuzov, who will play only part of the game. But also he mentioned that those two haven’t played for the national team for the last 6 months, so it’s not a big loss.

Overall, 7 players are from BATE, 2 from Dinamo Minsk and the rest are from Russian League, and in all those leagues football season are in the middle, not like for half of Lithuanians, who still are in preseason for their clubs.

Belarus friendly games in 2010 :
Belarus – Sweden 0:1
South Korea – Belarus 0:1
Belarus – Honduras 2:2
Armenia – Belarus 1:3

The Betting Verdict

Last time teams met in Minsk in 2004. Belarus won 1-0.

Like I mentioned before in my opinion Belarus football is on the rise, and Lithuanians are stuck in the same position. They are still going with the same players, who plays for the national team for the last 5-7 years and produce nothing, only few youngsters joined the team, but they a not major force.

It is only a friendly, that's why odds are so generous on away team. I wouldn’t expect the same odds in competitive match. But it's the final game before qualifiers and Belarus coach said he will field his best team and they will play for the win.

Thise game will be played in Kaunas, and only around 2000 people are expected to watch the game, so the only advantage for hosts are familiar ground, but not loud support.

I think that the value is with the visiting Belarus.

HANDICAP BETTING :

I would suggest small/medium bet on Belarus (AH 0) – in case of a draw, your stake is refunded.

The best odds at the moment are 1.97. Everything over 1.85 is good value in my opinion.

Good luck!