2023 A Lyga

A Lyga
Season	2023
Dates	3 March – 12 November 2023
Champions	Panevėžys
Relegated	Riteriai
Champions League	Panevėžys
Conference League	Žalgiris; Šiauliai
Matches played	171
Goals scored	403 (2.36 per match)
	← 2022 2024 →

The 2023 A Lyga, for sponsorship reasons also called Optibet A lyga was the 34th season of the A Lyga, the top-tier football league of Lithuania. The season began on 3 March 2023 and concluded on 12 November 2023.^[1]

The winners (Panevėžys) qualified for the 2024–25 Champions League first qualifying round. The runners-up (Žalgiris) and third-placed team (Šiauliai) qualified for the 2024–25 Conference League first qualifying round. The ninth-placed team (Džiugas) qualified for the A Lyga play-off, winning to retain their place in the league. The bottom-placed team (Riteriai) were relegated to the 2024 LFF I Lyga.

Teams

The league consisted of ten teams, nine of which remained from the previous season. Žalgiris entered the season as defending champions. Jonava were relegated and replaced by Dainava, returning after one year's absence.^[2]^[3] Ninth-placed Džiugas remained in A Lyga after winning the playoff against I Lyga's Neptūnas.^[4]

FA Šiauliai

Dainava

Panevėžys

Sūduva

Banga

Džiugas

Vilnius

Kaunas

Vilnius teams
Riteriai
Žalgiris
Kaunas teams
Kauno Žalgiris
Hegelmann

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Home towns of the 2023 A Lyga teams

2023 A Lyga competitors
Club	Location	Stadium	Surface	Capacity	Seasons in A Lyga	Position in 2022
Banga	Gargždai	Gargždai Stadium	Artificial	2,323	10	8th
DFK Dainava	Alytus	Alytus Stadium	Natural	3,726	12	1st in I lyga
DFK Dainava	Marijampolė	Marijampolė Football Indoor Arena	Artificial	2,660	12	1st in I lyga
Džiugas	Telšiai	Telšiai Central Stadium	Natural	2,320	3	9th
Džiugas	Telšiai	Ateitis Progymnasium Stadium	Artificial	300	3	9th
Hegelmann	Kaunas	LFF Kaunas Training Center Stadium	Artificial	500	3	4th
Kauno Žalgiris	Kaunas	Darius and Girėnas Stadium	Hybrid	15,315	9	2nd
Kauno Žalgiris	Akademija	VDU Stadium	Artificial	1,000	9	2nd
Panevėžys	Panevėžys	Aukštaitija Stadium	Natural	6,600	5	3rd
Panevėžys	Panevėžys	Žemyna Progymnasium Stadium	Artificial	620	5	3rd
Riteriai	Vilnius	LFF Stadium	Artificial	5,067	10	5th
Riteriai	Vilnius	Sportima Arena	Artificial	3,157	10	5th
Sūduva	Marijampolė	Marijampolė Football Arena	Natural	6,250	21	6th
Sūduva	Marijampolė	Marijampolė Football Indoor Arena	Artificial	2,660	21	6th
FA Šiauliai	Šiauliai	Savivaldybė Stadium	Natural	4,000	2	7th
FA Šiauliai	Šiauliai	Gytariai Stadium	Artificial	500	2	7th
Žalgiris	Vilnius	LFF Stadium	Artificial	5,067	22	1st
Žalgiris	Vilnius	Sportima Arena	Artificial	3,157	22	1st

Managers

Current Managers

Team	Coach	Appointed	Licence
FK Banga	David Afonso	41 months ago	UEFA Pro
DFK Dainava	Syarhey Kuznyatsow	30 months ago	UEFA A
FC Džiugas	João Prates	41 months ago	UEFA Pro
FC Hegelmann	Andrius Skerla	46 months ago	UEFA Pro
FK Kauno Žalgiris	Nerijus Mačiulis (caretaker)	13 months ago
FK Panevėžys	Gino Lettieri	26 months ago	UEFA Pro
FK Riteriai	Matthew Silva	15 months ago	UEFA Pro
FK Sūduva	Dovydas Lastauskas	21 months ago
FA Šiauliai	Mindaugas Čepas	47 months ago	UEFA Pro
FK Žalgiris	Vladimir Cheburin	46 months ago	UEFA Pro

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
FK Sūduva	Matthew Silva	End of caretaker spell	30 November 2022	Dovydas Lastauskas	1 February 2023
FK Riteriai	Pablo Villar	Sacked	24 March 2023	Vladimir Janković	1 April 2023
FK Kauno Žalgiris	Rokas Garastas		1 May 2023	Marius Stankevičius	1 May 2023
FK Riteriai	Vladimir Janković		22 July 2023	Matthew Silva	26 July 2023
FK Kauno Žalgiris	Marius Stankevičius		5 October 2023	Nerijus Mačiulis (caretaker)	5 October 2023

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Panevėžys (C)	36	26	9	1	64	14	+50	87	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Žalgiris	36	23	6	7	67	28	+39	75	Qualification for the Conference League first qualifying round
3	Šiauliai	36	16	14	6	51	35	+16	62
4	Kauno Žalgiris	36	15	14	7	61	40	+21	59
5	Hegelmann	36	18	5	13	62	43	+19	59
6	Banga	36	10	6	20	22	52	−30	36
7	Sūduva	36	10	5	21	28	60	−32	35
8	Dainava	36	7	10	19	25	40	−15	31
9	Džiugas (O)	36	4	13	19	25	57	−32	25	Qualification for the A Lyga play-off
10	Riteriai (R)	36	5	10	21	26	62	−36	25	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

Home \ Away	BAN	DAI	DZI	HEG	KAU	PAN	RIT	SIA	SUD	ZAL	BAN	DAI	DZI	HEG	KAU	PAN	RIT	SIA	SUD	ZAL
Banga		2–1	2–0	0–5	0–2	0–4	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–2		1–0	0–1	0–3	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–4
Dainava	2–1		2–2	1–0	0–0	0–1	5–0	0–0	2–1	0–2	0–1		1–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–2	1–2	0–2
Džiugas	1–2	0–1		2–0	0–0	0–3	1–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	2–1		1–2	0–2	0–3	2–2	3–3	1–1	1–2
Hegelmann	5–0	3–0	2–0		3–2	2–4	0–1	2–3	6–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1		1–1	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	2–0
Kauno Žalgiris	0–0	1–0	3–1	4–0		0–1	3–1	0–0	3–0	1–1	3–1	1–1	0–0	4–2		1–1	3–2	3–2	1–1	2–5
Panevėžys	2–0	0–0	4–0	1–0	2–1		3–1	3–1	0–0	0–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	2–2	3–0		1–0	2–0	2–1	2–0
Riteriai	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–4	1–1	0–4		0–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–3	0–0	2–3	1–3	0–2		0–1	1–2	2–6
Šiauliai	1–1	2–0	2–0	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–1		3–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	3–0^[a]	1–3	1–1	1–1	2–0		3–2	0–0
Sūduva	0–2	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–4	0–2	0–0	0–2		2–1	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–1	2–6	0–1	0–3	2–0		0–2
Žalgiris	1–0	0–0	2–3	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–2	4–0		1–0	1–0	4–1	4–0	0–2	1–2	3–0	2–2	4–0

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

^ Originally a 0–1 win for Džiugas; later overturned to a 3–0 win for Siauliai.

A Lyga play-off

The ninth-placed club (Džiugas) faced the second-placed club from the 2023 LFF I Lyga (Be1 NFA) for the final place in the following season's A Lyga.

First leg

18 November 2023	Be1 NFA	1–1	Džiugas	Kaunas
11:00 BST	Wouter 19'		Jezdimirović 73'	Stadium: NFA Stadium

Second leg

25 November 2023	Džiugas	1–0 (2–1 agg.)	Be1 NFA	Gargždai
11:00 BST	Nuno Pereira 69' (pen)			Stadium: Gargždai Central Stadium^[5]

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of match played 12 November 2023

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Mathias Oyewusi	Žalgiris	19
2	Filip Dangubić	Hegelmann	18
3	Eligijus Jankauskas	FA Šiauliai	14
3	Ariagner Smith	Panevėžys	14
5	Edvinas Girdvainis	Kauno Žalgiris	10
6	Daniel Romanovskij	FA Šiauliai	9
6	Gratas Sirgėdas	Kauno Žalgiris	9
8	Patrick Popescu	Hegelmann	8
9	Xabi Auzmendi	Kauno Žalgiris	7
	Florian David	Kauno Žalgiris
	Oleksiy Shchebetun	FA Šiauliai
	Pijus Širvys	Panevėžys

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref.
Cesinha	Hegelmann	Banga Gargždai	5–0 (H)	31 March 2023	^[6]
Filip Dangubić	Hegelmann	Sūduva	6–0 (H)	28 April 2023	^[7]
Mathias Oyewusi	Žalgiris	Kauno Žalgiris	2–5 (A)	27 June 2023	^[8]
Gratas Sirgėdas	Kauno Žalgiris	Banga Gargždai	3–1 (H)	7 October 2023	^[9]

Discipline

Red cards