Pirma Lyga overview: Race for promotion heats up

Babrungas lead Lithuania’s Pirma Lyga after match week 27, with three rounds remaining. Minija sit second with a game in hand after a home reverse, while Dainava beat Ekranas 1-3 and Hegelmann B drew 4-4 with Tauras late on.

Babrungas of Plungė top the table and are already assured of a finish no lower than second. Their best previous placing came in 2024 when they finished third following the 2015 merger of Plungė clubs. Second-placed Minija of Kretinga, who reached the cup final this season, suffered their first home defeat of the campaign after leading 2-0 in the 68th minute against Babrungas. The 2017-founded club, now backed by the Moussa Dembélé Investment group Triple M, still hold a game in hand as they chase a first promotion to the top flight. Minija previously won the Lithuanian Cup and finished third in the league in 1964 before earlier financial collapse.

FC BE1 of Kaunas have taken seven wins from their last eight matches to remain third after a 2-0 victory over fifth-placed Neptūnas of Klaipėda. Tomas Gudaitis shares the league scoring lead with 17 goals in 24 appearances. Fourth-placed Žalgiris B recently completed a 10-game unbeaten run before a subsequent loss, a win and then a 2-3 home defeat to newly promoted Garliava, who sit tenth. Vakaris Berenta, the other joint-top scorer on 17 goals from 27 matches, found the net for Žalgiris B in the match. Seventh-placed Tauras of Tauragė, who parted company with Belarusian coach Sergey Kuznetsov in August after his earlier success with low-resourced Dainava, shared a 4-4 draw with Hegelmann B. Tauras took the lead before Hegelmann B, the home side, scored twice to make it 2-1. Tauras then scored three unanswered goals to lead 2-4 by the 65th minute, only for Hegelmann B to reply in the 81st and 90+3rd minutes and finish 4-4, collecting a vital point in their fight to escape the relegation play-off place.

Sixth-placed DFK Dainava of Alytus, relegated last season and rebuilt around local players, sit 23 points off the promotion play-off places despite an earlier 11-game unbeaten sequence that included a penalty-shootout win over Toplyga side TransINVEST. They defeated struggling Ekranas of Panevėžys 1-3. Ekranas, who last appeared in II Lyga in 2021, have 15 points and trail the relegation play-off place by eight amid limited municipal support shared with FK Panevėžys. BFA occupy eighth after a 0-3 away defeat to Jonava, their second loss in a row after a seven-game unbeaten run, and next face Minija. Jonava’s win halted a four-match winless streak. Ninth-placed Atmosfera of Mažeikiai, whose season high was eliminating Žalgiris from the cup, are unbeaten in three and beat Žalgiris B 3-2 away.

Twelfth-placed TransINVEST B defeated Kauno Žalgiris B 0-2. Kauno Žalgiris B, level on points with Hegelmann B in 13th after an opening nine-game losing run, and 15th-placed Šiauliai B, who lost 2-3 to Garliava and sit in the relegation play-off place after surviving a two-legged play-off against Sveikata last season, complete the lower half. Lower-table B teams can be expected to strengthen for the final stretch by drawing on senior-side players, as Šiauliai B did last season.

Pirma Lyga returns for match week 28 starting this Friday.