Beating Lithuania, Mission Impossible?
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
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Along with Finland, the only other team at the tournament to have truly surpassed all expectations and defy the non-believers is  Macedonia.

Not surprisingly, Lithuania are favourites to win this game. They're on home soil, in front of 15,000 fans and will face an opponent ravaged in unchartered waters, having never previously reached this stage of a major tournament.

 Macedonia will also probably be without the extensive experience of Todor Gechevski while both Predrag Samradziski (knee) and Bo McCalebb (back) have been struggling to shake off injuries.

Nevertheless, with Lithuania within touching distance of the Semi-Finals, perhaps the podium and, at the very least, a coveted spot for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the worse thing the hosts can do is to take this game for granted.

For Macedonia have an incredible capacity to keep games tight as they once again showed against Russia on Monday night and will fight for every ball.



In McCalebb, they possess one of the most difficult players to stop in the tournament alongside the ice cool Vlado Ilievski who was locked down in the last game but is now due a big performance.

Lithuania need to be mentally prepared for the fight ahead which I am sure will be the case.

They have a fantastic opportunity lying in wait but the underdogs will always be capable of springing yet another surprise.

It's a dangerous game for Lithuania in every way. This is the type of game when the experience and leadership of their veteran returnees could be more important than at any other time during the tournament so far.

It will be interesting to see if Lithuania can take the initiative and control the tempo of the game because, so far at least,  Macedonia have done a good job at generally dictating this crucial issue.

 

Shootout?


Macedonia don't have the firepower to get involved in a shoot-out and so I suspect the uglier it is, the better for them. The tighter the game and lower scoring it is, the more vulnerable Lithuania will be. If the game becomes wide open and a shooting competition, Macedonia stands virtually no chance!

If Gechevski plays, Macedonia has a chance, although small, it is a chance.