Scots furious at Lithuanian pitch

Ewan Murray in Kaunas
Wednesday September 6, 2006
The Guardian

Uefa has ordered Lithuania to improve the pitch at the Darius ir Girenas Stadium for tonight's Euro 2008 qualifier against Scotland after the midfielder Nigel Quashie said it resembled a "superbike track".

Walter Smith's team trained at the stadium yesterday and found it to be heavily rutted in many places - with the Scotland manager understood to be furious over the conditions as his side look to build on Saturday's 6-0 demolition of the Faroe Islands.

Uefa's delegate for the Group B encounter, the Englishman Alan Hutchings, shares the Scots' unhappiness and has ordered the Lithuanian FA to improve the pitch before kick-off. Scottish officials had earlier expressed their anxiety to Hutchings, highlighting the ruts and poor state of each goalmouth.

"Yes, the pitch is bad, but we hope it will be cut and rolled before kick-off," was all Smith would say on the matter but, with the Lithuanians due to go through their paces on the surface after their visitors late yesterday, Scotland were worried on-field conditions would deteriorate.

Smith had earlier insisted that tonight will not be a make-or-break result for his team's hopes of qualification. The victory on Saturday produced euphoria among football followers north of the border after a period in the international doldrums. Yet Lithuania enter the match having opened their campaign with one of the most memorable results in their history, a 1-1 draw with the World Cup winners Italy in Naples, and Smith insisted there is plenty of margin for the unpredictable in a group which also contains France and Ukraine.

Smith warned: "There's no way we can enter into any game against any country and consider that we are good enough to beat them. We have to work really hard."

Everton's 36-year-old defender David Weir will mark his 50th cap by captaining his country.

Lithuania (4-2-3-1): Karcemarskas; Stankevicius, Zvirgzdauskas, Skerla, Dziaukstas; Savenas, Preiksaitis; Cesnauskas, Poskas, Mikoliunas; Danilevicius. Subs: Malinauskas, Kalonas, Labukas, Tamosaukas, Paulauskas, Zelmikas, Zaliukas.

Scotland (3-5-2): Gordon; Pressley, Weir, Caldwell; Dailly, Fletcher, Hartley, Quashie, Naysmith; McFadden, Miller. Subs: N Alexander, Boyd, Anderson, G Alexander, Severin, Teale, Brown.

Referee: Vladimir Hrinak (Slovakia)

Taken from the Guardian/Observer