Marked for David Fernandes
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match31 Mar 2029
Whatever happens, Zalgiris do not lose
23 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match2 Apr 2029
Zalgiris up to position 1
13 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad2 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match31 Mar 2029
Atlantas made Zalgiris work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
One of those days for John Dembe
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.78, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Ismael Páez gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zalgiris may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikola Petković and Zalgiris agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 May 2028
Zalgiris refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market1 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zalgiris can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Apr 2028
Zalgiris cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 May 2028
Bryan Teixeira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match29 Apr 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Jere Vrcić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zalgiris.
Player ratings1 May 2028
A performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 May 2028
8 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad1 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Amza Moubarack
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zalgiris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market28 Feb 2028
He is 18, and nobody at Zalgiris signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market28 Feb 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bryan Teixeira’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A new face in his position, and Martin Georgiev suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Zalgiris have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.