2022 A Lyga

A Lyga
Season	2022
Dates	4 March – 23 November 2022
Matches played	180
Goals scored	386 (2.14 per match)
Top goalscorer	Renan Oliveira; (13 goals)
Biggest home win	Žalgiris 6–0 Jonava; (4 March 2022); Hegelmann 6–0 Jonava; (16 July 2022)
Biggest away win	Jonava 0–5 Žalgiris; (27 April 2022); Jonava 0–5 Panevėžys; (22 June 2022); Sūduva 0–5 Žalgiris; (26 June 2022); Jonava 0–5 Banga; (7 September 2022)
Highest scoring	Džiugas 3–5 Žalgiris; (13 April 2022)
Longest winning run	8 matches; Žalgiris; (19 June - 28 August 2022)
Longest unbeaten run	13 matches; Žalgiris; (4 March - 14 May)
Longest winless run	28 matches; Jonava; (4 March - 12 September 2022)
Longest losing run	12 matches; Jonava; (4 March - 3 May 2022)
Highest attendance	1237; Sūduva 4–1 Panevėžys; (7 August 2022)
Lowest attendance	45; Kauno Žalgiris 5–1 Džiugas; (7 September 2022)
Total attendance	66,834
Average attendance	371
	← 2021 2023 → All statistics correct as of 12 September 2022.

The 2022 A Lyga, for sponsorship reasons also called Optibet A lyga^[1] was the 33rd season of the A Lyga, the top-tier football league of Lithuania. The season began on 4 March and concluded on 23 November 2022.^[2]

Teams

FK Žalgiris started the season as defending champions. DFK Dainava and FK Nevėžis were relegated, and replaced with FA Šiauliai and FK Jonava. All teams that were eligible to participate in A lyga based on sporting principle have successfully passed the licensing process for the first time in recent years.^[3]^[4]^[5]

FA Šiauliai

Jonava

Panevėžys

Sūduva

Banga

Džiugas

Vilnius

Kaunas

Vilnius teams
Riteriai
Žalgiris
Kaunas teams
Kauno Žalgiris
Hegelmann

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Home towns of the 2022 A Lyga teams

2022 A Lyga competitors
Club	Location	Stadium	Surface	Capacity	Seasons in A Lyga	2021 position
FK Banga	Gargždai	Gargždai Stadium	Artificial	2,323	9	7th
FK Banga	Gargždai	—	—	—	9	7th
FC Džiugas	Telšiai	Telšiai Central Stadium	Natural	2,400	2	8th
FC Džiugas	Telšiai	Ateitis Progymnasium Stadium	—	—	2	8th
FC Hegelmann	Kaunas	LFF Kaunas training center stadium	Artificial	500	2	5th
FC Hegelmann	Kaunas	—	—	—	2	5th
FK Jonava	Jonava	Central Stadium of Jonava	Natural	2,000	3	2nd in I lyga
FK Jonava	Jonava	Artificial Stadium of Jonava	Artificial	500	3	2nd in I lyga
FK Kauno Žalgiris	Kaunas	Kauno Žalgiris FA Stadium	Natural	500	8	3rd
FK Kauno Žalgiris	Kaunas	NFA Stadium	Artificial	500	8	3rd
FK Panevėžys	Panevėžys	Aukštaitija Stadium	Natural	6,600	4	4th
FK Panevėžys	Panevėžys	Žemyna Progymnasium Stadium	Artificial	500	4	4th
FK Riteriai	Vilnius	LFF Stadium	Artificial	5,067	9	6th
FK Riteriai	Vilnius	Sportima Arena	Artificial	3,157	9	6th
FK Sūduva	Marijampolė	Sūduva Stadium (Hikvision Arena)	Natural	6,250	20	2nd
FK Sūduva	Marijampolė	Marijampolė Football Indoor Arena (Hikvision FIA)	Artificial	2,660	20	2nd
FA Šiauliai	Šiauliai	Savivaldybė Stadium	Natural	4,000	1	1st in I lyga
FA Šiauliai	Šiauliai	Gytariai Stadium	Artificial	500	1	1st in I lyga
FK Žalgiris	Vilnius	LFF Stadium	Artificial	5,067	21	1st
FK Žalgiris	Vilnius	Sportima Arena	Artificial	3,157	21	1st

Managers

Current Managers

Team	Coach	Appointed	In Charge	Licence
FK Banga	David Afonso	3 June 2021	3 years, 4 months	UEFA Pro
FC Džiugas	João Prates	15 June 2021	2 years, 4 months	UEFA Pro
FC Hegelmann	Andrius Skerla	2 January 2021	3 years, 9 months	UEFA Pro
FK Jonava	Petro Kushlyk	26 May 2022	2 years, 4 months	UEFA Pro
FK Kauno Žalgiris	Rokas Garastas	3 December 2019	4 years, 10 months	UEFA Pro
FK Panevėžys	Gino Lettieri	22 September 2022	2 years	UEFA Pro
FK Riteriai	Pablo Villar	24 May 2022	2 years, 4 months	UEFA Pro
FK Sūduva	Matthew Silva (caretaker)	20 October 2022	1 year, 11 months	UEFA Pro
FA Šiauliai	Mindaugas Čepas	1 December 2020	3 years, 10 months	UEFA Pro
FK Žalgiris	Vladimir Cheburin	11 January 2021	3 years, 9 months	UEFA Pro

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
FK Panevėžys	João Luís Martins	returned to C.S. Marítimo	30 November 2021	Valdas Urbonas	11 December 2021
FK Riteriai	Miguel Moreira	end of contract	30 November 2021	Glenn Ståhl	27 January 2022
FK Sūduva	Víctor Basadre	contract terminated	4 April 2022	Miguel Moreira	11 April 2022
FK Jonava	Eisvinas Utyra	resigned	23 April 2022	Yevhen Lutsenko (caretaker)	23 April 2022
FK Riteriai	Glenn Ståhl	resigned	7 May 2022	Vaidas Sabaliauskas (caretaker)	12 May 2022
FK Jonava	Yevhen Lutsenko (caretaker)	resigned	11 May 2022	Martynas Matuzas ^[a] (caretaker)	14 May 2022
FK Riteriai	Vaidas Sabaliauskas (caretaker)	appointment of permanent manager	24 May 2022	Pablo Villar	24 May 2022
FK Jonava	Martynas Matuzas (caretaker)	appointment of permanent manager	26 May 2022	Petro Kushlyk	26 May 2022
FC Džiugas	Marius Šluta	sacked	13 June 2022	João Prates	15 June 2022
FK Panevėžys	Valdas Urbonas	sacked	10 September 2022	Dainius Gleveckas (caretaker)	10 September 2022
FK Panevėžys	Dainius Gleveckas (caretaker)	appointment of permanent manager	22 September 2022	Gino Lettieri	22 September 2022
FK Sūduva	Miguel Moreira	mutual consent	20 October 2022	Matthew Silva (caretaker)	20 October 2022
FK Sūduva	Matthew Silva	end of caretaker spell	30 November 2022	-	-

^ Team's goalkeeper and U-19 youth coach, also playing as goalkeeper and the captain for the first team

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Žalgiris (C)	36	26	6	4	85	27	+58	84	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Kauno Žalgiris	36	18	9	9	55	37	+18	63	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
3	Panevėžys	36	18	8	10	50	31	+19	62	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
4	Hegelmann	36	16	13	7	62	32	+30	61
5	Riteriai	36	17	8	11	53	41	+12	59
6	Sūduva	36	15	10	11	48	40	+8	55
7	Šiauliai	36	13	11	12	39	39	0	50
8	Banga	36	6	12	18	33	54	−21	30
9	Džiugas (O)	36	5	12	19	34	67	−33	27	Qualification for A Lyga play-off
10	Jonava (R)	36	0	3	33	12	103	−91	3	Relegation to I Lyga

Source: A Lyga
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-off (for champion only) 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head goals scored; 6) Head-to-head matches won; 7) Goal difference; 8) Goals scored; 9) Matches won; 10) Fairplay ranking; 11) Draw.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated

Fixtures and results

Rounds 1–18

Home \ Away	BAN	DZI	HEG	JON	KAU	PAN	RIT	SIA	SUD	ZAL
Banga	—	3–3	1–0	1–1	3–1	1–2	0–4	0–0	0–1	0–2
Džiugas	0–0	—	1–1	2–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	3–5
Hegelmann Litauen	2–0	2–0	—	4–0	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	2–2
Jonava	1–3	0–1	1–4	—	0–2	0–5	0–1	0–3	0–4	0–5
Kauno Žalgiris	1–1	2–1	1–3	4–0	—	2–1	0–1	0–0	0–3	2–2
Panevėžys	2–0	1–0	1–1	4–0	1–0	—	3–0	1–2	2–1	0–2
Riteriai	1–0	3–0	0–3	5–0	1–1	0–0	—	1–1	2–0	0–1
Šiauliai	1–1	3–2	0–0	3–0	0–1	0–3	1–0	—	0–0	0–1
Sūduva	3–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	—	0–5
Žalgiris	2–1	2–1	2–1	6–0	1–2	0–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	—

Source: A Lyga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Rounds 19–36

Home \ Away	BAN	DZI	HEG	JON	KAU	PAN	RIT	SIA	SUD	ZAL
Banga	—	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	2–3	0–0	0–2
Džiugas	0–1	—	0–1	2–2	0–3	0–0	1–4	1–0	2–1	1–1
Hegelmann Litauen	5–0	5–0	—	6–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	2–1	2–0	1–4
Jonava	0–5	0–1	0–1	—	1–2	1–1	0–3	1–3	0–2	0–4
Kauno Žalgiris	3–0	5–1	1–1	2–1	—	0–0	2–0	1–0	2–2	0–2
Panevėžys	2–1	3–2	3–1	2–1	2–1	—	0–1	1–2	2–0	0–1
Riteriai	2–2	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–1	—	3–1	2–3	1–5
Šiauliai	1–1	2–2	0–0	2–0	0–3	1–0	3–2	—	2–0	3–0
Sūduva	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	0–2	4–1	2–1	2–1	—	1–2
Žalgiris	2–1	6–0	2–1	3–1	2–3	0–1	3–1	5–0	1–0	—

Source: A Lyga
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

A Lyga play-off

The 9th-placed team, Džiugas, played a play-off against the second-placed team from I Lyga, FK Neptūnas, for the remaining spot in the league.^[6]

First leg

27 November 2022 (2022-11-27)	Neptūnas	0–4	Džiugas	Klaipėda, Lithuania
13:00 EET (UTC+2)		Report	Jorge Eduardo 29', 73', 77' Ankudinovas 67'	Stadium: Klaipėdos dirbtinės dangos stadionas Attendance: 400 Referee: Donatas Rumšas

Second leg

30 November 2022 (2022-11-30)	Džiugas	1–0 (5–0 agg.)	Neptūnas	Telšiai, Lithuania
13:00 EET (UTC+2)	Virkšas 69'	Report		Stadium: Telšiai Central Stadium Attendance: 60 Referee: Manfredas Lukjančukas

Top scorers

Goals	Assists	Player	Club
17	2	Renan Oliveira	FK Žalgiris
13	6	Vilius Armanavičius	FC Hegelmann
13	3	Oleksiy Shchebetun	FA Šiauliai
11	1	Kule Mbombo	FK Sūduva
10	3	Rokas Filipavičius	FK Riteriai
9	2	Daniel Romanovskij	FA Šiauliai
9	2	Anton Fase	FK Kauno Žalgiris
9	2	Mathias Oyewusi	FK Žalgiris
9	0	Robertas Vėževičius	FK Banga