Foto - FK Ventspils, Baltic league champions

FK Ventspils are the champions of TrioBet Baltic League 2009/2010 after overcoming Sūduva on penalties in a thriller final which took place last Sunday in Marijampolė. Ventspils almost had the trophey in their hands both in normal time (1:1) and in extra-time (3:3), but twice Sūduva managed a remarkable recovery in the last seconds to drive the match to the penalty shoot-out (5:3).

VIDEO Highlights

After an emotional game both head coaches complimented each other focusing on the positive and admitting having experienced one of the most amazing games in their careers.

Donatas Vencevičius, Sūduva head coach: “Congratulations to the opponents. We played better in the second half than in the first half, but we just couldn‟t score and Ventspils did that first. In extra-time Nerijus Radžius had to play with an injury so we were almost one man down. I want to thank my players for showing the character and fighting till the end. Penalty shoot-out is a lottery, you can‟t do much about it. At the moment it‟s hard to remember such a dramatic game. Good luck to Ventspils in the Latvian championship and UEFA Europa league. We also have Europa league to look forward to and two goals by Ričardas Beniušis are a positive thing, although he just joined us and is not prepared to play full 90 minutes. Maybe our performance was not so great but I am happy about the effort. It was difficult to come back twice from behind but it shows the team‟s strong character.”

Nunzio Zavietteri, Ventspils head coach: “I„m very happy for the club and the players and I can praise each and every one of them. My emotions after this game are part of emotions of everyone at Ventspils, I dedicate this game to all my colleagues at the club. It‟s a great experience for our young squad. I think we deserved to win, although I guess I might have lost less weight if we played more wisely. This game is a great advert for football and the TrioBet Baltic League and both teams showed really good football. Compliments to Sūduva, I wish them well in Lithuania and in Europe. I„ve never experienced such a dramatic game neither as a player nor as a coach. I have once lost the match on the 120th minute but never an opponent had managed to draw twice in the last seconds. Sūduva deserves massive respect for this. It‟s an incentive for me to work with the players and avoid such situations in the future. Before the penalty shoot-out I told my players that they should be calm because in my eyes they were already the winners.”

Full match report and statistics of the game are available from the official TrioBet Baltic League webpage www.balticleague.com.

TrioBet Baltic League Press Department
press@balticleague.com