The Last Crusade: Lithuania v England

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Lithuania v England

European Championships Qualifier 2016
Group E
Lithuania v England
LFF Stadion
Vilinus, Lithuania
12 Oct 2015

This was England's first ever trip to the tiny 5500 seater stadium in Vilinus and also the first ever visit by the Senior team to Lithuania, so quite a few England fans were travelling to bag a new ground. This, despite it being a dead rubber for the already qualified 'Three Lions'. The team were missing senior players including the Captain, Wayne Rooney, so it was deemed a good opportunity for Roy Hodgson to blood a few players and get some of the fringe players more game time.

Initially the away tickets for this game were extremely scarce, with the FA only allocated 250 tickets, so even on a whopping 49 caps I would have needed to be successful in the mini ballot. In my panic I did manage to secure an emergency ticket in the Home end, but thankfully I didn't need it as the FA secured a further 576 and so our total allocation ramped up to 826, which meant that me (and even the Mrs) had made the 70% cut. A total of 2883 had registered for this game, so as sure as eggs are eggs, about a thousand would travel to this game without tickets.

Chris Smalling in the picture for his 20th cap

LFF Stadionas, Vilnius

Lithuania 0 England 3

Attendance: 5051

Day 1 - Riga, Latvia. This trip would start with a short 2 day break in Latvia. After an early flight we booked into the Hotel Gutenbergs at around 1030 hrs.

Rooms were quite good for £64.

Skonto Stadium is the national stadium of Latvia
and also has the largest capacity with 9500.

Cheeky trespassing

Skonto Hall is adjacent to the stadium and is
used for many events including Ice Hockey and
even the 2003 Eurovision song contest.

Taken from the Main Stand. The stadium has 3 permanent stands but temporary seats are added for big games.

At the end of the 2nd day we travel to Vilnius on the 4 hour Lux Express (15 € - bargain).

Day 3 . After booking in we are shown to the Hemingway Room in the Shakespeare Hotel, Vilnius.

Town Hall and Square.

Road leading to the Gates of Dawn.

The Gates of Dawn.

The Gates of Dawn from outside of the Old Town.

Off to the Club Shop and LFF HQ

Taken from behind the Home End.

The Left hand side of the 'Long Side' housed the Official England Supporters.

VIP boxes.

One of the short sides still needs developing but this is unlikely as the domestic crowds in the A Lyga are so low and the national team only sells out when they play the big boys.

The Home End behind the goal is where the Zalgiris Ultras and other fanatical groups usually stand for Lithuanian games, unless of cause, they were to sell their own allocation to the English (See below).

Official Entrance for the English.

Derby 'Neptune' flag in Lithuania.

Church of St Casimir.

Pilies Street.

Gediminas Tower.

View of the old Zalgiris Stadium from the tower.

The national flag on top of the Gediminas Tower.

Funicular going down to Lithuanian National Museum.

King Mindaugas, the only King of Lithuania.
Crowned in 1253 and reigned for 10 years.

River Neris from the Mindaugo Bridge.

Zalgiris Stadium entrance to Tribuna A.

Zalgiris Stadium.

First beers (of too many) on match day.

Atmosphere building on Town hall Square.

Scene 1 of my downfall.

Scene 2 of my downfall. The Old Radio Bar)

England fans on the long side opposite the main stand

I was too inebriated to take any photos at the match but here is one I stole showing the riot police intervening after missiles are thrown in the non segregated Home End.

Day 4 - Vilnius/Trakai. On the walk to the bus stop
we pass the Presidential Palace.

This manikin reflects how I feel.

The bus from Vilnius to Trakai only takes 45 minutes.
First stop is the Orthodox Church.

An ethnic Karaim restaurant. The Karim are Turkic settlers that were taken by the Lithuanians during a military venture to the Crimea and later employed as Royal Guards.