Lithuania, Bulgaria name squads ahead of Malta clashes

Lithuania national coach Igoris Pankratjevas and Bulgarian national coach Ivaylo Penev named the squads which will travel to Malta for the international friendly match between Malta and Lithuania in programme on June 8 and the EURO qualifier between Malta and Bulgaria scheduled for June 12.

Lithuania plays two friendly matches against Hungary on Friday in Debrecen before travelling to Malta. These two games will serve as tests for the Baltic country ahead of the EURO qualifier against Switzerland on June 14. They are currently fourth in Group E with six points from five matches in a group which includes England, Slovenia, Switzerland, Estonia and San Marino.

Bulgaria, on the other hand, travels to Malta in search of a win after the 1-1 draw in Sofia in November. In another qualifier in March, they held Italy in a 2-2 draw.

The Lithuanian squad is made up of:
goalkeepers Saulius Klevinskas (Žalgiris Vilnius), Edvinas Gertmonas (Atlantas Klaipeda);
defenders Vytautas Andriuškevičius (SC Cambuur – NED), Georgas Freidgeimas (Žalgiris Vilnius);
Tomas Mikuckis (Torpedo Moscow – RUS), Tadas Kijanskas (Hapoel Haifa – ISR), Egidijus Vaitkūnas (Žalgiris Vilnius), Rolandas Baravykas (Atlantas Klaipeda), Linas Klimavičius (FK Trakai), Deividas Česnauskis (FK Trakai);
midfielders
Karolis Chvedukas (Sūduva Marijampole), Donatas Kazlauskas (Lechia Gdansk – POL), Mindaugas Panka (Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona – ISR), Saulius Mikoliūnas (FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk – BLR), Vytautas Lukša (Žalgiris Vilnius), Gratas Sirgėdas (VfB Stuttgart II – GER), Mantas Kuklys (Žalgiris Vilnius), Vykintas Slivka (Nova Gorica – SLV);
forwards Deivydas Matulevičius (Pandurii Târgu Jiu – ROM), Lukas Spalvis (Aalborg BK – DEN), Simonas Stankevičius (Leicester City FC – ENG).

On the other hand, the Bulgarian squad is made up of:
goalkeepers Nikolay Mihaylov (Mersin – TUR), Bozhidar Mitrev (Lokomotiv Sofia), Blagoy Makendzhiev (Beroe);
defenders Stanislav Manolev (Kuban Krasnodar – RUS), Ivan Bandalovski (FC Partizan – SER), Nikolay Bodurov (FC Fulham – ENG), Petar Zanev (Amkar Perm – RUS), Alexandar Alexandrov (Ludogoretz), Borislav Stoychev (Levski Sofia), Yordan Minev (Ludogoretz);
midfielders Georgi Milanov (CSKA Moskva – RUS), Ivaylo Chochev (Palermo – ITA), Atanas Zehirov (Beroe), Vladimir Gadzhev (Levski Sofia), Svetoslav Dyakov (Ludogoretz), Kristian Malinov (Litex Lovech), Mihail Alexandrov (Ludogoretz);
forwards Alexandar Tonev (Celtic – SCO), Ivelin Popov (Kuban Krasnodar – RUS), Ilyan Mizanski (Karlsruher SC – GER), Dimitar Rangelov (Konyasport – TUR), Radoslav Vassilev (Slavia Sofia)