The lowdown on Georgia ahead of Euro 2024 qualifying clash with Scotland
Group A leaders Scotland face Georgia in their fourth Euro 2024 qualifying match.
Their opponents have caused problems to Scotland in previous European Championship campaigns.
Here is the lowdown on Tuesday’s visitors to Hampden.
Manager
Georgia have a familiar face in the dugout in former Bayern Munich and France full-back Willy Sagnol. He knows all about Hampden, having lost there to a Gary Caldwell goal in 2006 in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Sagnol started his coaching career with France Under-21s before spending close to two years in charge of Bordeaux. He had a brief spell as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant at Bayern in 2017 and took charge of Georgia in February 2021.
Form
⚽️ ძდ: 🇨🇾 კვიპროსი 1⃣-2⃣ საქართველო 🇬🇪⚽️ FT: 🇨🇾 Cyprus 1⃣-2⃣ #GFF 🇬🇪
🔜 We head to Scotland next, to take on the Group 🅰️ leaders.
👇 This is how the standings look after this evening’s games (taken from https://t.co/EqDeCGNmc3). 🙂 #მევარსაქართველო #EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/1oPoU8B44v
— Georgia • GFF (@GeorgiaGff) June 17, 2023
Georgia sit second in Group A after drawing with Norway and winning in Cyprus in their opening two fixtures and their good form stretches back more than 18 months. They have only lost once in 15 games – in a World Cup warm-up game for Morocco. They have won 11 of those matches with defeated opponents including Sweden, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. A 5-2 Nations League win in Bulgaria is arguably the highlight of that run.
Star man
Georgia boast a player who has lit up Serie A this season. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia won the title with Napoli and the league’s player-of-the-year award after delivering 12 goals and 10 assists in 33 games. The 22-year-old was even nicknamed “Kvaradona” because of the influence he had for a club who last won the title with the help of the football genius of Diego Maradona. The winger only joined Napoli last summer after returning to Georgia to sign for Dinamo Batumi after leaving Rubin Kazan in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has 10 goals in 21 internationals and is undoubtedly the one to watch from the visitors to Hampden.
Past meetings
Scotland have beaten Georgia twice in Glasgow but lost both of their away fixtures, each of which were arguably the most costly games in Scotland’s near misses in qualification attempts for the European Championships of 2008 and 2016. Both home games have been narrow wins – Scotland needed an 89th-minute strike from Craig Beattie to seal a 2-1 victory in Alex McLeish’s first game in charge in 2007 and an own goal at Ibrox in a 1-0 victory in October 2014.