With this feeling towards play-off games

Before the closing matches of the Riga Football League, in which FK Lielupe will try to reach the playoffs, we had a friendly match with FK Saurieši.

Team squad for the game against FK Saurieši was quite similar to the one in previous game in Riga Football League to Napalm, with one change – Mārtiņš Auziņš replacinig Dainis Sondors. For FK Lielupe, this game was very important, because we needed to return to a winning track. In general we were able to create a lot of dangerous moments throughout the game, but we must admit that we still make some serious mistakes in defense.

FK Lielupe was able to take the lead quite quickly thanks to our Turkish player Gökhan Özen, who managed to score two goals during several minutes. After that, a series of defensive mistakes starts again, which led to FK Saurieši being able to level the game. Despite the fact, we returned the lead quickly, thanks again to Gökhan Özen, which scored his first hat-trick for FK Lielupe.

In the second half both teams played very open, creating a moment after moment. Our goalkeeper Adrians Kaufmanis often had to save the team. Riccardo Paoli returned a two-goal lead, but another mistake in defense led to that FK Sauriesi again minimizing the score. Then followed the penalty to our goal, which was successfully taken by the guest team – again tie on the scoreboard. In one of the episodes a bit later, it seemed that nothing could save FK Lielupe from conceding the fifth goal, but somehow one of the players of FK Saurieši hit the goal post. Heorhii Tkachov brought us the victory – 5:4.

Already this Friday, FK Lielupe will have one of the crucial games in the Riga Football League, where we will face our direct competitors for the Play-off – OldSchool team. It is very important to maintain the spirit of this victory and transform it into a first victory in a league game.