Cuper confident Georgia can spring a surprise

GEORGIA landed in Dublin earlier this week minus four players through injury and with half their squad coming out of cold storage due to the winter football hiatus in parts of eastern Europe.

Not ideal then, but still a marked improvement considering their perilous state when these sides met last September.

Back then the Georgians were playing their ‘home’ tie in Germany as a result of the recent war with Russia in South Ossetia.

Players had travelled to Baku in Azerbaijan through the conflict zone just to obtain visas for a friendly against Wales played two weeks before in Swansea.

Hector Cuper had only been coach a week before that game against the Welsh.

Yes indeed, things have picked up since then. How could they not? Cuper looked back on that game in Mainz yesterday and all he could think about were mistakes. Most obvious was the goalkeeping boo-boo which allowed Glenn Whelan’s long-range shot give the Irish a 2-0 lead.

“Unfortunately, in the first match against Ireland, we made some errors,” said the Argentinian coach. “Our goal is to avoid making such mistakes. We have already held training sessions in which we were working on this issue, to avoid repeating these or other mistakes.

“I must also say that our national team has made big progress in comparison with where we were for the first Ireland match. We know we face a strong team in front of their home support but, nevertheless I must admit that we have made a lot of progress.”

He made no bones at the time about his displeasure at playing that game in Germany. The Georgian FA was consistent in its claims that the war was no threat to the capital Tbilisi but Cuper isn’t planning on using that as a motivational tool tonight.

The war put that in perspective.

“This is not revenge for us, just a very important match for our team. We will do our best. The events which took place in September influenced not only a football match but created a lot of difficulties for the whole nation.

“We have already overcome these difficulties. We have forgotten everything. We just think about this match, a very tough and important match, but revenge will not be our approach, our mentality.”

The absent faces he believes “will not be a big problem” although it is worth pointing out that all four are foreign-based and Schalke 04’s Levan Kenia, who was their best player in Mainz, will certainly be missed.

Their loss is balanced by the confirmation that AC Milan’s Kakha Kaladze is fit and will play while Blackburn Rovers’ Zurab Khizanishvili returns from suspension after missing the last tie at home to Bulgaria.

“Kaladze feels good,” he said of his star player who has recovered from a knee injury. “He arrived safely from Milan and he appears to be in good condition. He desires to play very much and I hope and think he will start the game from the first minute.”

The lack of football some of his players have been exposed to may be the bigger worry. This game was originally due to be played next September but Croke Park’s restricted availability saw the FAI push successfully for this earlier date.

Ten of Cuper’s squad play in Georgia where the national championship has only just arose from its mid-season slumber and others earn their pay in countries like Russia, Latvia and Hungary where winter conditions also interfere with the calendar.

Nevertheless, Cuper has prepared diligently for the tie. Ireland’s games have been dissected on video and it was no surprise to hear the Georgian coach mention the 3-2 friendly defeat to Poland when asked about possible areas of weakness in the green ranks.

Georgia have been competitive since the game in Mainz, departing Italy with a respectable 2-0 reversal and holding both Bulgaria and Cyprus to draws at home. They may be underdogs tonight but Cuper was talking a good fight yesterday.

“The very first thing we are thinking about tomorrow is the three points. This team deserves a victory at this stage. We have some basis to think about this as the team has made progress.”