On Thursday the second leg of UEFA Europa League third qualifying round will start at 20:00 on “Mikheil Meskhi” stadium in Vake. “Dila” Gori will host Croatian “Hajduk”.
On Wednesday the both team practiced and held press conferences.
Giorgi Devdariani (head coach of “Dila”): Of course, we are satisfied with the result of the first leg. We make mistakes in Split and we have already talked to the football players about it. The team gathered two months ago and we will try to improve our play.
- What will be your tactic in the second leg?
- You will see it in the match. As for the strategy, the first match ended up in favor of us and we do not hurry. Our opponent has to score and it will attack us. We will wait for their mistakes and will try to achieve success by counter-offences.
- Who will replace disqualified Otar Khizaneishvili?
- Aleksandre Kvakhadze. Sich behavior is strange from the experienced player but pressure on the field can be understood. He exaggerated and was very disappointed. It will be a good example for him and other players.
- Perhaps, many fans will come to the stadium and will demand offensive play from you…
- I will ask fans to let us fulfill our plans. 8 August is important not only because of this match. Everybody knows what happened on this day 5 years ago. This day is very oppressive for the whole Georgia and especially for Gori. We cannot say that we will decide geopolitical problems with this victory but we will try to make our people happy. It is our duty.
- Is anybody injured?
- Mamuka Kobakhidze and Rati Aleksidze may not play.
Irakli Modebadze (captain of “Dila”): Nothing is decided yet and we will do our best. We believe we will achieve success.
…Then “Dila” practiced and the Croatians held press conference. Head coach Igor Tudor behaved strangely. We do not know whether he was on a bad mood but he started speaking in Croatian. Croatian was translated into English and English into Georgian. Later our Croatian colleagues explained us that Tudor does not like press conferences. He found translating from one language into the second and then into the third very long process and repeated the same to all questions: It is sad that we lost the first match but we will play for victory. Tudor took almost half team to the press conference. Why?
Later we talked to our friend Ivo Susak who traditionally answered to questions of “World Sport” with great pleasure.
- We know you attended the first match in Split.
- Yes, I was on the stadium. We thought “Hajduk” would have had advantage but “Dila” played quite well. However the field was not in good condition.
- Why was the field so strange?
- Before the match two concerts were held there.
- What do you think about the second leg?
- Both teams are good and chances are 50/50.
Solomon Gulisashvili
