Zalgiris Vilnius

Ground: LFF stadionas

Visits: 1

Date: 18th June 2014

Match: Zalgiris Vilnius - Banga 1-0 (A Lyga)

Attendance: 650

In early May I visited Lithuania for the first time in my life. The main target on that trip was Belarus though and the only match I attended in Lithuania was Kruoja vs Siauliai. As I was looking at A Lyga fixtures back then I noticed there were midweek fixtures the week I started my summer holidays. Wednesday 18 June was the first day of my holidays and that evening Zalgiris Vilnius hosted Banga in the A Lyga. I could then go to Siauliai the following day before travelling to Latvia for three matches. Even though the standard of the football isn´t the best I booked this trip quite early and with the low living-costs in Lithuania and Latvia this was going to be quite a cheap trip for me. Kick-off in Vilnius was at 19.00 and 13.10 my flight left Copenhagen airport. At 15.45 (one hour time difference) I was yet again in the Lithuanian capital. For the reasonable price of 1 Euro I then used the airport bus to make the short journey to Vilnius bus station. My hotel was then only a 5-minute walk away. With the match this evening being played only a 12-minute walk from my hotel I was quite pleased how "easy" my planning had been.

Zalgiris Vilnis play at LFF stadionas. This ground is also the current national stadium in Lithuania. With only three stands and a capacity of 5 500 it must be one of the most basic national stadiums in Europe. The East Stand is an open seated stand and the South Stand (behind the goal) is open as well. Only the VIP-section in the West Stand had a roof but fortunately no rain forecasted. The ticket office was a red car and the price for a ticket was 4 Euros. I had no idea what the attendance was going to be like but 650 is ok I guess. Zalgiris Vilnius have won four Lithuanian league titles and being almost 10 points clear at the top they will most likely win this year as well. Banga (from Gargzdai) didn´t bring any fans to this match but 50 or so "hard-core" home fans in the South Stand did their best to create an atmosphere. Zalgiris won the match 1-0 and the match was ok to watch. After the match I made a short sightseeing tour of the old city where I also had Wienerschnitzel for dinner. I then walked back to my hotel where I watched Spain vs Chile in the World Cup before quickly falling asleep.

vilnius