Lithuania

Lithuania 1992-93 Home, matchworn/prepared for Arūnas Mika?
Lithuania 2000-01 Home, matchworn/prepared
Lithuania 2006-09 Home, matchworn by Saulius Mikoliūnas v Italy, 2008 ECQ
Lithuania 2006-09 GK, match-issue Paulius Grybauskas v Romania
Lithuania 2009-10 Home, matchworn? v Latvia, 2010 Baltic Cup
Lithuania 2013-15 Home, benchworn Vytautas Andriuškevičius v Latvia
Lithuania 2016-17 Home
Lithuania 2018-19 Home
Lithuania 2021-22 Home, matchprepared Gratas Sirgėdas v Latvia

Oh yes. Everton and Chelsea fans may recognise this old Umbro template, with the asymmetrical jagged stripe across the front. There are also arrow shapes around the line, made up of horizontal stripes, with the pattern repeated on the rear of the shirt and even partly on the sleeves! Add to that white and orange detailing on the collar and cuffs along well nicely patterned material and you’re really onto a winner. The very old badge of just Vytis, the White Knight on a proper shield pattern is the last thing it needs, with the red colour fitting in nicely with the shirt, just as with the green numbering. That does lead to the only strangeness of the shirt, why is it orange when Lithuania’s colour is yellow? Nonetheless, very much a superb shirt.

Used in their inaugural qualifying campaign after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Lithuania were drawn in a massive qualifying group. At home they did fairly reasonably, only taking a point off Latvia, but managing a win over Albania and even grabbing a draw against Denmark. Their losses to the two Irelands were by only a single goal and it was only 2-0 against Spain. However, away from home they suffered more. They gave Albania their only win of the campaign, conceded 11 without reply to Spain, Ireland and Denmark, only making up for those with a 2-1 victory over Latvia and a 2-2 draw with Northern Ireland. They finished 5^th, best of the bottom three, but very much distant from 4^th.

One of the later examples of a template that was inventive and used well, Lotto threw out an actually interesting effort for Lithuania here. There are green stripes down the front and curving across the sleeves. These help divide out yellow stripes on a white background that fades back into the main yellow of the shirt. Add in a green and yellow striped collar and giant black and white Lotto logos on the shoulders and you end up with quite the shirt. It may be a template, but it uses enough colour to be personalisable for each country that used it. Good shirt!

Nice as the shirt may be their 2002 World Cup qualification in it was very poor. They may have stunned everyone with a 0-0 draw against Italy late in the campaign, but their only other point was a 1-1 away draw in Hungary, meaning they lost home and away to Georgia and Romania. 2 matches were within a single goal, showing that things could’ve swung differently on the day but 3 matches were lost by 4 or more, including the home matches against Hungary and Georgia! Not really one to remember for them.

Are you seeing double? Not quite, these Saller shirts differ on their logo, which swapped in the middle of their contract. The old logo was dual layered and crenelated across the top. Definitely better than the transfer badges. In terms of the shirt itself, it is mainly yellow, with green collar and sweeping green accenting across it, keeping things fresh. Flag on the left arm, match detailing, they’re impressive shirts without breaking any new ground. Add to that, the typeface for the numbers flows beautifully and has the border around the outside. Decent shirts.

Additionally there’s this lovely little goalkeeper shirt from the same period. Mostly black, but with plenty of deep golden bronze panels across the entire shirt for a splash of colour, one not normally seen on shirts. These do seem to have forced the patches migration down the fronts of the sleeves for some reason, which is odd and the badge is unfortunately just a transfer too. Lastly, the numbers aren’t quite the right colour in comparison to the panels (or indeed each other, once #1?). A strange shirt, all in all, but a nice one that stands above the much plainer designs.

The old badge was used across Euro 2008 qualifiers, while the newer one came in 2009 for 2010 World Cup qualifiers. In Euro 2008 qualifiers they finished a point behind 4^th place in a 7 team group. They lost home and away to France and Scotland, managed a stunning 1-1 away draw in Italy (but lost at home), traded wins with Ukraine and beat Georgia and the Faroe Islands home and away. 16 points left them 6 points clear of 6^th but 10 points behind the qualificants.

In 2010 qualifiers their home form significantly outstripped their away form. They beat Serbia 2-1, Austria 2-0 and the Faroes 1-0 while taking single goal losses to France and Romania. However, away from home they only managed a 3-0 victory over Romania, taking single goal losses to France, Austria and the Faroes and a 3-0 loss to Serbia. They ended up in 4^th, ahead of Romania on goal difference and 2 points behind Austria in 3^rd.

Next up, a benchworn 2014 World Cup qualification shirt by the fantastically named Vytautas Andriuškevičius. Hummel typically make good shirts and, no matter how dodgy the deal was that linked Lithuania and Hummel, this is no exception. Match detailing, the felt patches and the numbers do help but the subtle patterning on the front (diagonal stripes into the classic chevrons) and the standard shoulder chevrons add to it. The black and yellow colour scheme also helps, though I wish they had name printing, if only to see how it would fit…

With Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece only dropping 5 points across the 10 games, Lithuania were far from able to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in this shirt. Placing 4^th out of 6, they took 6 points off Liechtenstein, 3 points off bitter Baltic rivals Latvia and managed impressive home and away draws against a Slovakia side that had been at the 2010 tournament. 2 points behind Slovakia in the standings, 3 points ahead of Latvia and a whopping 14 points off even the play-off spot, it was a competitive campaign but never going to be a successful one.

Next up looks plain but has an incredibly detailed front to it. The black rises to a position of prominence for this design and the classic chevrons move to the sides and turn silver. A bit starker a shirt and one that doesn’t quite work as well in my opinion. It is, however, still very nice and doubled up as their away GK shirt so was fairly versatile. As elaborate as the design is, it doesn’t seem to match any prominent Lithuanian symbols which is a shame but it is still nice.

Drawn in a tough group with England, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta for 2018 World Cup qualification, Lithuania endured a poor campaign. Starting off with 2 draws (against Slovenia and Scotland) and a win against Malta was good but a solitary 1-1 draw in their remaining 7 games proved disastrous. 9 points off even 4^th place and only ahead of the Maltese (as well as being responsible for Malta’s only point) would not have been their ambition. That early draw with Scotland did help prevent them from getting a play-off spot though.

Then we have their Nations League kit. The chevrons return to the shoulders and we get some accenting down the side but they feel a bit cheap. There are two big bonuses. The first is the patterning around the sleeve cuffs and the bottom, which is colourful and presumably traditional. The second is the giant heat press knight on the front, though that can be hard to see. The home yellow shirt is a little nicer, being a little bit more colourful but both kits do pretty well.

This shirt was used during the 2018-19 Nations League, which was disastrous. Drawn in League C with Serbia, Romania and Montenegro, Lithuania lost every game, though two of their home games were only by a single goal. They scored 3 goals, conceded 16 over 6 games and two of their goals came in 4-1 losses (away to Serbia and at home against Montenegro). The only saving grace, besides some decent shirts, was that the total revamp of the format would prevent them from being relegated into League D so that they stay above Latvia and can dubiously claim to be on the same level as their other Baltic companions, Estonia.

Their latest shirt looks simple from the outset, but has a surprising amount of detail to it. The traditional chevrons aren’t even plain and the tops of the shoulders have a dotted pattern. Green detailing on the sleeve cuffs, collar and sides help keep it from being plain and the new logo is complemented by a massive version of it, heat-pressed into the front. Even the Hummel logo is 3d. It may be a very plain design, but it does a fair amount to stand out.

So far this design has only been used in the 2021 Baltic Cup, where Lithuania lost both games, and in 2022 World Cup qualifying. Narrow losses to Italy (2-0 at home), Switzerland and Bulgaria (both 1-0 away) show that there is something there, but a 4-1 home loss to Northern Ireland and their only points coming from a surprise win against Bulgaria show that they have some distance to come. They’ve not shown enough and results have not been kind.

Recent results excluded, Lithuania have tended to be one of the better low tier sides in UEFA. They threatened the play-off spots for the 1998 World Cup, finishing 1 point short, but typically compete for 4^th place in a group of 6. It is very rare for them to finish bottom, though it has happened twice, but success is equally rare. Aside from their initial, terrible, Nations League season, their second season was middling, allowing them to hold position in League C. The Baltic Cup has provided a better platform, competing against Estonia and Latvia (and twice Finland) where they’ve won 10 of the 27 tournaments. They last won it in 2010, where they retook the lead for the most victories. Since then, they’ve dropped off a little and have lost their title lead to Latvia. They attended the 1924 Olympics, getting annihilated 9-0 by Switzerland and failed to qualify for the 1934 and 1938 World Cups, losing to Switzerland and Lithuania respectively.

The women’s team showed up briefly in the 90’s, got annihilated, and returned in 2009 to compete in preliminary rounds. They still don’t win regularly, but typically aren’t the worst team in the preliminary groups and can grab a few draws here and there and a win every so often. In 2021 they won their 5^th Baltic Cup, of 21 tournaments to date but they annihilate everyone in 2^nd places at 13, which is the tiebreaker that now puts them ahead of Latvia and behind only Estonia. They aren’t very good but what do you expect from a team that managed to lose 17-0 to Scotland in 1995? Suffice to say, they’ve improved. The younger male youth teams have a handful of elite round appearances but the U21s most consistently emulate the senior side in being very middling. The U19s did host (and therefore debut) at the 2013 U19 Championship though, where they lost all their games fairly narrowly. All of their Baltic Cup results were fairly unspectacular too. The women’s youth teams do not regularly succeed but somehow hosted the 2018 U17 Championship where their narrowest loss was 4-0. Women’s youth Baltic Cup results are tricky to find but I doubt they’ve been too different.

Beach soccer isn’t a popular sport judging by 3 wins from 25 games but they have largely only just gotten started, with the majority of their games coming since 2017. Futsal is much more popular with them competing more regularly, albeit not much more successfully. 1 victory (and six 2^nd places) in the 9 Baltic Futsal Cups shows their level and their qualification campaigns have gone fairly similarly, rarely competing for the top spot but typically not being the worst. They will host the next World Cup though and therefore debut at the tournament they’ve otherwise not really threatened to appear at.

Their recent results were extremely poor so they were expected to only compete only at the bottom in qualification for 2022. Despite a possibly promising start, they fell well short of what was required to progress, or even to be kingmakers. A 3-1 victory at home against Bulgaria was a definite positive, but it would prove to be their only points from the entire campaign.