Georgia– Croatia 1:0. “Jvarosnebi” (Crusaders) has never won such match of principle. We mean the tournament schedule in “principle” and we can remember winning over Bulgaria in 1995… We did not have chance to go through the final stage then. As a rule, in spring, Georgian team has never been in the list of fighters for European Championship and Mundial.
Here are estimations of 14 Georgian football players and head coach Temur Ketsbaia:
Revishvili – made 5 “saves” and 3 were quite difficult. In the first half, he parried the shot of Petric. After the break, he parried balls of Kranjcar and Kalinic. He made a little mistake – at the added time he could not catch the shot of Pranjic and threw it on corner with foot.
Salukvadze – he made Bilic substitute Kranjcar and he let left defender Strinic to shoot only once. He held difficult 2nd half. He was one of the best players on the pitch.
Khubutia – he held the first official match in the national team. He parried many balls with head. He almost did not make mistakes. Mostly, Khubutia played against Kalinic. Many people did not justify choice of Ketsbaia but Khubutia proves with his playing that he is a reliable defender.
Amisulashvili – he fought like “gladiator” and Khubutia-Amisulashvili pair played key role in success of Georgians. Aleko is one of the best players of Russian Premier League and he always plays for the national team. We can say the same about other 3 defenders who played yesterday.
Kaladze – after the goal of Kobiashvili, face of Kaladze is showed in video of the match. It expresses everything – tiredness and mad happiness. There were some moments when he found it difficult to play against Srna and Petric. Perhaps, Bilic noticed tiredness of Kaladze and he sent Pranjic to the field but the captain fought till the end.
Khizanishvili – he did not hold the best match. He made some bad assists but he played well with Daushvili. Khizanishvili tried to score goal with head and then with foot but missed.
Daushvili – in spite of that he plays in the national championship and Modric leads “Tottenham”, Daushvili did not let Modric play well. He did not participate in attacks because he did not have to leave Modric and other Croatian midfielders.
Kankava – after 3 operations he held this match. He played in front of Khizanishvili-Daushvili. But Croatians had advantage and Jaba had to play in defense. He made the opponent break rules 5 times. At the 90th minute, he assisted Martsvaladze and this combination ended up with the goal of Kobiashvili. Kankava had not played for the national team since 2007…
Kobiashvili – he scored the most important goal in history of the national team. He is 33 years old but he is unchangeable for the team. He lost the ball only once and then scored the goal. “Kobi” will never forget this goal and this day.
Iashvili – in the first half, Croatian defenders could not attack Georgians because of him. Then he got tired and Ketsbaia substituted him. It was not the best match for “Akuna”. Georgian team played from defense and that is why Iashvili was not so effective.
Dvalishvili – he played alone in attack and tried to disturb Croatian defenders – he could not manage to do it. He often was in offside.
Substitutes:
Siradze – he played in right attack where he had to help Iashvili. He managed to make some dangerous moments and also, helped defenders.
Martsvaladze – this match showed that the national team needed help of Otari in previous matches. It can be easily said that it was merit of Otari that the team decided to attack its opponent. Forward of “Volga” attacked Croatians but could not manage to kick the ball. But he was who assisted Kobiashvili and …
Gogua – he did not have much playing time. He shot once but missed it.
Ketsbaia – it is happiness when Georgia has such coach! He won over Bilic. It is not only about good substitutions. He had 4 midfielders who also played in defense.
Hector Cuper – 13 unsuccessful matches in a row, Temur Ketsbaia – 10 unbeaten matches in a row.
Ilia Nanobashvili
