Stubborn visitors make Lithuania toil

A powerful drive from Arturas Rimkevicius was enough to hand Lithuania a UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying win against ten-man Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rimkevicius seized on a Mindaugas Kalonas lay-off and rifled past Zdenko Baotic as the home side’s pressure finally told 17 minutes from time.

Open goal
Lithuania started vigorously and created four chances in the opening eight minutes, the best of which fell to Vytautas Lukša, who was unable to locate the empty net.

Bus crash recovery
Lithuanian goalkeeper Mindaugas Malinauskas was slightly hurt in a bus crash last week, and received a gentle reintroduction as Bosnia failed to trouble him in the first half. Malinauskas was finally called into serious action on 52 minutes, making a fine reaction save from Sejad Salihovic’s deflected free-kick.

Reckless challenge
The game changed on the hour, when Salihovic was ordered off for a reckless tackle. Bosnia-Herzegovina could not repel the tide of Lithuanian attacks and finally succumbed to Rimkevicius, before Linas Pilibaitis hit the post a minute from time.

Qualifying hopes over
Lithuania remain fourth in the group, on ten points, and have no realistic chance of reaching the qualifying play-offs, with Spain, Serbia and Montenegro, and Belgium all at least five points ahead with two games left.