IT seems there are more people in Scotland interested in Lithuania's match against Czech Republic this evening than there are in Lithuania itself.

From Kaunas to Vilnius and beyond, the conclusion of this disastrous qualifying campaign for Euro 2012 can’t come quickly enough.

Enthusiasm for this final game is reserved only for the national team diehards and even most of them are motivated largely by the prospect of possibly witnessing coach Raimond Zutautas’ final game in charge.

For Scotland, in all probability needing Lithuania to win if they are to finish second in Group I and reach the play-offs, the apathy does not augur well. Football, in truth, has never truly captured the hearts of the Lithuanian locals in a country where basketball is king.

A flick through the country’s newspapers confirms as much, with most sports coverage given over either to domestic matches or the ongoing lockout that looks like delaying the start of the 2011 NBA season.

A few familiar faces leap out from the pages. There is a report on Andy Murray’s Japan Open win over Rafael Nadal, while there is also an article featuring Vladimir Romanov, Hearts’ mercurial majority shareholder.

Even this story isn’t about football, though, but about Romanov berating Ilias Zouros, the coach of Zalgiris Kaunas, the basketball team he owns. Plus ca change, as they don’t often say in Lithuania. Copy on the national team playing a competitive international at home was conspicuous yesterday largely by its absence.

Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise given how this campaign has panned out for Lithuania after a positive start. A draw at home to Scotland in the first qualifier was followed by a shock win in Prague, and what many had foreseen to be a straight duel between the Scots and the Czechs for second place seemed to have become a genuine three-horse race.

Lithuania even put up a decent fight both home and away against Spain before succumbing 3-1 each time, performances that further imbued the team with confidence.

It would be lowly Liechtenstein, however, who would prove to be Lithuania’s unlikely nemesis, winning 2-0 at home and then managing a scoreless draw in Kaunas.

Interest in the fortunes of the national team tumbled after that, the 1-0 loss at Hampden last month confirming Zutautas’s side would not be at next summer’s finals in Poland and Ukraine. Those close to the team feel it may be some time before a nation can ever forgive and forget those shock results.

“People are not really speaking much about football these days because of what happened earlier in the campaign,” said Mantas Stankevicius, sportswriter with the Kauno Diena newspaper. “The matches against Liechtenstein were a huge disappointment and because of that morale is really low. There was a sadness across the country after that and, at the same time, a lot of fans were angry and disappointed. We had a real chance of finishing second in the table and people could not believe we had lost to Liechtenstein.”

Scotland’s hopes rest on a new-look Lithuania without many of their senior players for tonight’s game. Edgaras Cesnauskis, Devidas Semberas, and Tomas Danilevicius are all out, while there are doubts over Deividas Cesnauskis, Marius Stankevicius and Andrius Skerla. Zutautas believes it provides the ideal chance to showcase the country’s up-and-coming talent.

“There comes a time when you need to replace the older players and this is a good time to do that,” said the coach. “There will be new faces, young guys full of ambition who want to play. Our team’s chemistry is very good and the players want to end the campaign with a win.”

Mantas Stankevicius, though, does not share the manager’s optimism. “I hope for Scotland’s sake and for the sake of our fans that we can beat the Czechs but I don’t think we have a real chance. It is hard to win when you are in a sad mood and have very little motivation. It will be very difficult.”