FK Žalgiris head coach Andrius Skerla admitted Hajduk Split were “a much better team” after the Lithuanian side’s European campaign ended with a heavy defeat in Croatia.
Žalgiris held Hajduk to a goalless first half at Poljud but conceded four times after the break to lose the second leg of their UEFA Conference League third qualifying round tie 4-0. Having also been beaten 5-2 in Vilnius, they exited the competition 9-2 on aggregate.
Skerla was encouraged by his side’s organisation before the interval but said the manner in which they reacted after Dario Melnjak opened the scoring in the 53rd minute was particularly disappointing.
“Looking at both matches, they showed that Hajduk are a much better team than us,” Skerla said. “I am disappointed with the second half. We conceded the first goal in a situation that was predictable. We knew that their left-back could join the attack, that he can get into the penalty area and knows how to play there. We switched off in that moment, and after that it looked as though we simply gave up.”
Melnjak’s goal broke the resistance Žalgiris had shown during the opening 45 minutes, with Hajduk then adding three further goals as the visitors struggled to contain the Croatian side.
The defeat came two weeks after Žalgiris produced one of the most remarkable results of this season’s European qualifying rounds, overturning a 3-0 first-leg defeat against Dinamo Tbilisi by winning 7-2 in Vilnius and progressing 7-5 on aggregate. Skerla, however, rejected comparisons between the two ties.
“First of all, I don’t think you can compare them,” he said. “Those two teams are completely different – Hajduk and Dinamo Tbilisi.
“I think Dinamo Tbilisi are at our level. If we compare Žalgiris and Hajduk now, there is no doubt that the opposition are a much better team. But that is not the only point.
“I think there were moments when we could and should have played much better in order to avoid some of the goals we conceded, especially in the first match. As I have just said, if you are well organised, if you know what you are doing and you are proactive, you can make life difficult for a team like this.
“But to beat Hajduk, of course, sometimes perhaps you also need a little more luck. You have to be proactive, as we were in the first half. But if we compare the two teams, Hajduk are clearly the better team.”
Skerla said Žalgiris had identified space behind Hajduk’s advanced full-backs as one possible route to goal and felt his side had several promising situations without turning them into clear chances.
“You can see how they attack, how they maintain their structure and where they leave spaces,” he said.
“Both full-backs play very high and sometimes you can see those spaces. When you win the ball in certain moments, for example in midfield, you can take advantage of that if you have quick players and you are well organised.
“We had a couple of those moments in the first game and today there were some moments in transition in the first half as well. We put a few dangerous balls into the penalty area. Maybe they were not 100% chances, but there were some half-chances, particularly early in the first half. Sometimes if you score from one of those situations, the course of the game changes. Unfortunately, we didn’t.”
The coach also expected his team to spend long periods defending and viewed counter-attacks and set-pieces as their most realistic opportunities to threaten Hajduk.
“When you play against teams like this, set-pieces are a huge thing from which you can create something, and so are transitional moments,” he said.
“But when you defend so deep, it is very difficult to get out and attack. Especially in the second half, we defended very deep. It became very difficult to get out of those situations and find the right moment for a quick transition.”
Goalkeeper Carlos Olses returned to the Žalgiris starting line-up after almost three months away from competitive action, replacing Vincentas Šarkauskas. Olses produced several saves during the first half as Žalgiris kept Hajduk scoreless until the interval.
Skerla said the decision was not prompted simply by the Venezuelan’s recovery from injury but by a desire to make a change in goal.
“I simply wanted a change,” he said. “I also wanted to let him play in Europe. Whatever way you look at it, we concede a lot. We score goals as well, but we concede a lot. So maybe it was time to try something and give Olses an opportunity. In the first half, Lupano cleared a number of balls and Olses also did well.”
With their six-match European campaign now over, Skerla said the immediate task was to prevent the scale of the defeat from carrying into Žalgiris’ domestic season.
“At this moment it is definitely not easy,” he said. “It is difficult, and it does not matter that you lost to a much better team. A defeat always remains a defeat, and this is a big defeat. But we have to react. We have to react and understand that we are going back now. Our journey in Europe is over. It ended against a good club and perhaps in a painful way, but we have to return to reality.
“We still have enough matches to play and anything can happen. We simply have to play until the end. That is what I want to see, and that is what I want from the players.” he concluded.
