The head coach of the Georgian U-21 team stated at the press conference that his players would play only for victory in the upcoming match.

Aleksandre Chivadze: “We will hold two matches in the group – against Luxembourg the day after tomorrow and against Holland in September. We had an interesting team. We lost very pity points. If not some bad mistakes, we could have achieved positive result. Before the start of the qualifying round, I told the football players we must have taken the place which would give us a chance to get in play off.

After winning the first match in Luxembourg we must not have lost in Slovakia. We made bad mistakes against Holland but beat Scotland. It shows the atmosphere in the team. We had the last match against Slovakia in Gori. We were winning 1:0 and lost because of individual mistakes. I do not like talking about referees but the referee could have awarded penalty in that match.

Now the national team has 7 candidates from our team. Next year the football players born in 1994 will play for our team. So, we called up 10 new players for the meeting.

I wanted to call up Iluridze. In my opinion, he can establish himself in the national team but he is injured. Dzalamidze will come. We also called up Tarkashvili from “Antwerp” of Belgium. Also, Arabuli who was one of the leading football players in U-19 team. Besides that, we have Pantsulaia and Zivzivadze in offence. We also could use Papunashvili, Tsintsadze and Jikia (born in 1995) but the team of Vasil Maisuradze has to hold two friendly matches in Turkey”.

- Why did not you call up Kukhianidze from “Zestafoni” who scored double against “Wit Georgia”?

- I have called up Kukhianidze before. Now we are making accent on the players born in 1994.

- However, Kvekveskiri is not in the team…

- Solomon Kverkvelia is called up for the first team. Kukhianidze is an interesting football player and I wish him good luck.

- What is the level of Luxembourg?

- Today the football players watched Luxembourg-Holland match which Holland won 1:0. You must score against the team which plays as No.2 as soon as possible.

- Has the tactic of the team changed after calling up the new players?

- I prefer creative football. We are in the third place in the group and it will be good if we keep this place. We will play for victory for sure.

- Will you be orientated on the result?

- We will give the young players chance to show themselves but we will play on the result. We must take the third place in the group.

- Two matches are left before the end of the qualifying round. Have you talked to the Georgian Football Federation about your future?

- We will talk after the end of the qualifying round.

Georgia-Luxembourg match will be held on the Tengiz Burjanadze stadium on March 5. It will start at 14:00. 

Lasha Tabagari