Our prediction for this Nations League match:
Following a routine 4-0 win over Faroe Islands, Turkey will look to give fans yet another reason for celebration when they take on Lithuania at LFF stadionas on Tuesday. The Turks kicked off their Nations League campaign in style, but Lithuania will pose a much bigger threat for the visiting side than their previous rivals. As always, a man to watch in the away team will be Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, while Serdar Dursun is pushing for a start after opening his goal-scoring account against Faroe Islands.
The Lithuanians, on the other hand, failed to impress in a 2-0 loss to Luxembourg, which is probably the main reason why we are going to put our money on Turkey. Both Kruzikas and Petkevicius are pushing for recalls, with Klimavicius and Golubickas likely to drop to the bench.
Highlighted Player (Vytautas Andriuskevicius):
Vytautas Andriuskevicius is a Lithuania international who plays for Portland Timbers as a left back. Andriuskevicius started his senior career at FBK Kaunas, but he made no more than 17 league appearances for the Lithuanian club from 2007 to 2010.
In 2010 he joined Polish outfit Lechia Gdansk and he spent three seasons at Stadion Energa Gdansk. After ending his spell with Lechia, Vytautas Andriuskevicius moved to Sweden, signing a deal with Djurgardens. He played 31 league games for the Iron Stoves and at the end of the 2013/2014 season he joined Cambuur.
After spending two seasons in the Dutch club, the Lithuanian footballer signed for Major League Soccer club Portland Timbers on July 14, 2016. Andriuskevicius is a full back who side position is centre back and it has to be noted that he was born on October 8, 1990 in Alytus, Lithuania. The 188-cm tall defender made his Lithuania debut on August 10, 2011 in a friendly against Armenia.
Highlighted Team (Turkey):
Present on the international stage since 1923, Turkey only started showing some promise during the 70’s, but they had to wait until the turn of the century to place themselves on the map. While they lost all three fixtures at their first ever European Championship finals in 1996, they fared much better four years later, reaching the last eight in Netherlands and Belgium.
Milli Takim were able to build on that result as they went on to reach the podium at the 2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan, while also finishing third at the 2003 Confederations Cup and making it to the semi-finals at the Euro 2008.
Rustu Receber, Hakan Sukur and Emre Belezoglu were important parts of the country’s most successful generation, but the one including Arda Turan, Selcuk Inan, Burak Yilmaz and Hakan Calhanoglu is threatening to surpass their achievements. As the Turkish Super Lig continues the get stronger, the national team follows, and we should expect some big result from Milli Takim in the near future.