That’s it from me tonight. Stick around for Simon Burnton to bring you all the action from the later kick-offs, including that Germany v Poland encounter, plus Ireland v Gibraltar and a few more. Cheers for reading.
Well, it’s happened again. Just like in 2007, Scotland have lost in Tbilisi to potentially scupper their chances of qualifying for the European Championships. The home side defended brilliantly, but Scotland didn’t create enough and didn’t get a single shot on target. That leaves Scotland still two points behind Germany, who play Poland later tonight and visit Hampden on Monday, and they will probably be overtaken by Ireland who are in Gibraltar for their game later.
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Full-time: Georgia 1-0 Scotland.
It’s deja vu all over again.
90 mins + 5: ...but it’s headed away. The Georgians are tapping imaginary watches.
90 mins + 4: Hutton takes a long throw...it’s headed behind....
90 mins + 3: A change for Georgia, as Vatsadze comes on for Mchedlidze. Several Georgians on the turf with cramp.
90 mins + 2: Mulgrew takes this one, from the right...it finds Hanley who wins a clean header around eight yards out...but he skims it wide!
90 mins + 1: Griffiths finds some room in the box from a knock-down, but Amisulashvili manages to put it behind for a corner. And he does exactly the same from Maloney’s delivery.
90 mins: Hutton takes a long throw from the right but it’s headed out for a corner. Last chance now, perhaps...but Kverkvelia heads Maloney’s cross away. Maybe not the last chance, as there will be four minutes of added time.
89 mins: Maloney shoots...it’s on target...but it flicks the top of the wall and goes wide.
88 mins: Free-kick for Scotland in a very, very dangerous position. Morrison challenged with Kverkvelia around 22 yards out, but the Georgian handballs it. Scots going down with cramp all over the palce, here.
86 mins: Mulgrew lines it to Maloney, who manages to wriggle a little bit of space, but his cross is low and easily cleared. Can’t help thinking Maloney would be much more useful in the middle trying to pick a hole in the defence, rather than stuck out wide.
84 mins: Georgia really are relentless in defence. Scotland spend a good minute with the ball, trying to work some space for a cross, which Mulgrew eventually delivers but the home defence is perfectly strong enough - they have three centre-backs, after all - to head it away. Scotland running out of ideas.
82 mins: Georgia have a spell in possession, but eventually give it away with a careless pass down the left. To console themselves, they make a change, with Ananidze (bye Pete!) off, and Daushvili on.
80 mins: Maloney tries to work himself some space on the left, knocks it back to Mulgrew who crosses into the middle, but it’s behind Fletcher so he therefore can’t get any sort of power or direction on the header.
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79 mins: After the ref takes an age with his vanishing spray, Maloney puts a reasonable ball into the middle but it’s headed clear. Not happening for Scotland.
78 mins: Forrest tries to get around Navalovsky on the right, he’s blocked off, the Georgian man is booked. Free-kick in a dangerous spot here for Maloney.
77 mins: Mchedlidze goes close again, as he fires in a shot from the left side of the area, the Scottish defence looking sluggish, but it hits the side-netting.
75 mins: Here comes Griffiths, replacing Anya who has been pretty anonymous in the second half.
73 mins: The closest Scotland have come for a while, as Brown and Mulgrew carve out a crossing chance for the latter on the left, which takes a deflection and nearly wrong-foots the keeper, but he manages to gather in time.
72 mins: Ooof. Forrest tries to dribble down the line, but takes a heavy touch and runs it out. Griffiths - he of six goals in seven starts for Celtic this season - is about to come on.
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71 mins: Change for Georgia, as Okriashvili goes off, looking a touch irked by the whole thing, and Merebashvili comes on in his place.
69 mins: Fletcher turns, shoots outside the area but skews it well wide. He goes down as if he was fouled during that attempt, but the contact looked minimal.
68 mins: Despite theoretically being on the back foot, Georgia look more threatening, as Mchedildze shoots from the edge of the area, forcing a smart save from Marshall.
67 mins: “If the Scots are seeking inspiration,” chuckles Peter Oh, “needn’t they look no further than the St. George’s cross on their opponent’s crest?”
66 mins: Maloney puts the cross over from the right, Hanley gets up at the back stick and heads into the middle, but it’s easily claimed by the keeper.
65 mins: Scotland have a long spell of possession as they try to break down a Georgia defence that look settled in now. Five at the back, looking to be very solid, and Scotland are going nowhere until Okriashvili helps them out by pointlessly barging Hutton to the ground on the right.
63 mins: Strachan is standing on the sidelines with both arms outstretched, like a mini ginger Christ the Redeemer. Definitely like that. Or something.
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61 mins: Hutton is let off the hook after watching Navalovsky make a run down the left and simply letting him do it, but Kazaishvili delayed the pass for so long the wing-back was offside. If Hutton is knackered at this stage, it’s going to be a long last 29 minutes.
59 mins: Okriashvili is down and apparently in some pain, but the incident in which it apparently occurred was innocuous, to say the least. Meanwhile, they make those two changes, with Forrest and Hanley coming on for Naismith and, interestingly, Robertson. Mulgrew to left-back?
57 mins: “Charlie Adam divides opinion” writes Tony Reekie, picking up a point from earlier, “as much with team mates as supporters - but we look so functional in the middle. Difficult to see where the spark is coming from though Scott Brown looks mildly combustible, though not in a good way.”
Looks like there’s going to be a double change, with James Forrest and Grant Hanley readying themselves.
56 mins: Beautiful turn by Maloney about 40 yards out, and he slips in a delightful pass to Fletcher, who sweeps a shot from the edge of the box that thunks against the post. However, the flag was up and Fletcher was offside.
54 mins: Fletcher tries to slide a ball through for Maloney, which is intercepted but he was taken out after the ball by Kverkvelia. Maloney tries a slightly odd skimmed ball into the middle, but Naismith can’t reach it.
52 mins: Nice play from Anya to speed away down the left, and it looks as if he will either get a shot or cross away as he enters the area, but Kverkvelia does superbly to get across from the middle and clear.
50 mins: A curious moment as Maloney takes a quick corner, spotting there’s nobody on the front post and whips in looking for either a straight goal or Naismith. The forward shoves the keeper over but wheels away thinking the ball had crossed the line, only to be given the unwelcome news that a) it hadn’t and b) a free kick against him is given.
49 mins: Mulgrew plays it long looking fro Fletcher on the edge of the area. It finds him and he nods it down, but it’s just behind Maloney, who would have been clear on goal.
48 mins: Kverkvelia plays an absolute peach of a long, crossfield pass to Navalovsky out on the Georgia left, but Hutton stops the cross and concedes the corner. Ananidze plays it short, then crosses to the near post where Mchedidze tries to sweep it home and nearly beats Marshall, but the Scottish keeper saves.
46 mins: We begin, Georgia getting us started once more. Leigh Griffiths has been warming up at the break, and it probably won’t be long before we see him, if there’s no breakthrough.
They’re back out. Huge, massive, large, big 45 minutes coming up for Scotland.
“As you type Andy Gray and Richard Keys are “entertaining the troops” in Baku, Azerbaijan, the country that adjoins Georgia at a “gentleman’s curry night” where the majority of the audience will be some well lubricated ex pat oil folks.” John Tumbridge has a very literal answer to the question of where Andy Gray is. Cheers John.
The last action of the half was Hutton trying to chase a ball down the right, only to be prevented/blocked off by Navalovsky, who then accidentally tripped over the Scot’s legs. Hutton had ‘a little word’ with his opponent after the whistle, which was needless but perhaps indicative of the frustration from a team that should really be ahead, or at least not behind.
Scotland have created a number of good chances and not looked in massive danger, but they find themselves behind after Kazaishvili took advantage of a slight moment of indecision in their defence. A talking to at the break from Wee Gordon required.
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Half-time: Georgia 1-0 Scotland
Peeeeeeeeep.
45 mins: Brown loses the ball again and nearly wipes out his opponent in doing so. Dangerous stuff on a couple of levels from the Scottish skipper. One minute of added time.
44 mins: Ananideze/Pete goes up for a header with Morrison, they barge into each other in the air but for some reason the Georgian is booked. Harsh, that. Maybe the ref doesn’t like my former colleague Pete.
43 mins: Naismith is through after a neat pass by Fletcher, but Kverkvelia gets there first to intercept. The ball goes through to Revishvili who gathers, and there are some half-hearted claims for a back-pass, but nothing doing there.
41 mins: Georgia should probably be two up. Brown is dispossessed in midfield and the hosts counter, as Ananidze takes it forward then feeds Mido-a-like Okriashvili on the left side of the box, but he dithers before shooting, cuts outside, then back inside before his attempted pass is put behind for a corner by Martin.
39 mins: It was a decent goal, that, but Kazaishvili was given a reasonable amount of time to gather himself and shoot. Naismith tries to pick Scotland up and get them going once more, but Lobzhanidze backheels the ball against his shins and out for a throw.
37 mins: Georgia go ahead after a long ball into the box is brought down nicely by Kazaishvili, who controls the ball, retrieves it from ‘neath his feet and drives in a fine low shot into the corner of the net.
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GOAL! Georgia 1-0 Scotland (Kazaishvili 37)
Well that came from nowhere...
36 mins: Everyone’s having a drink of water. It’s bloody hot and humid in Tbilisi apparently, but brace yourselves for a bunch of people to go postal about some athletes taking on fluid anyway.
34 mins: Anya finds himself inside after running in from the left, and he tries a slipped ball through the Georgia defence, but it just doesn’t reach Maloney, who had made a smart run down the right channel.
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33 mins: Scotland nearly in some trouble as Ananidze robs a dithering Anya down their right, but his low cross is cleared by Mulgrew in the middle. They’ve largely been the better side, but there have been a few squiffy moments from Scotland so far.
30 mins: Corner from the right for Georgia, and Ananidze/Pete hoys it over, but it’s too deep. Pete would never have made an error like that. Well, he probably would, actually. I don’t think he was very good at football.
28 mins: Magnificent cross from Robertson again, this time a low one betwixt defence and keeper - the corridor of uncertainty that Andy Gray (whatever happened to that guy? taught us was horrible to defend - but it’s a few bootlaces width too far ahead of Fletcher, who can’t convert the ball, sliding in.
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25 mins: Ananidze - who looks just like a bloke I used to work with called Pete, a detail vital to your enjoyment of this game - swings over a free kick from deep on the right, but it’s too close to the Scottish defenders and is headed clear.
23 mins: The plan seems clear for Scotland - get it wide, cross it in. Robertson tries that from the left, but this time it’s blocked.
21 mins: Smart work by Naismith and Anya sets the former away down the left side of the area, he cuts it back aiming for Fletcher in the middle but it’s put behind for a corner. That set piece comes to little and is bundled clear.
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19 mins: Mchedlidze is afforded space - too much space, in fact - around 30 yards out and has the room to get a shot away, but fortunately for Scotland he skews it wide.
18 mins: Scotland are getting plenty o’ joy from their full-backs getting forwards. Hutton ploughs down the right and flings over the cross from there, Fletcher goes up with the keeper but he goes off like a car alarm after the slightest touch from the Sunderland striker, and his flapping becomes a free kick.
16 mins: Georgia seem to have kept the ball for the last minute, but have just been passing it around between the centre circle and the edge of the area. Eventually a bit of Scottish pressure forces them to pass back to Revishvili in nets, and his clearance is rather badly sliced out.
15 mins: Georgia attacking midfielder Okiashvili has more than a slight look of Mido about him. All for this.
14 mins: Robertson fair whips a cross over from the left, looking for Naismith at the back stick. The Everton forward goes down, claiming he was impeded by Kashia, but instead the free kick goes t’other way.
12 mins: Morrison hoops over a ball from deepish on the right looking for the man in the middle, but unfortunately for Scotland that man is the slightly more ‘wee’ Anya, rather than Fletcher.
11 mins: It really does. HD is lovely and all that, but it certainly takes something away. All we need to do now is get the commentators to talk down a ropey phoneline.
@NickMiller79 Sky's coverage seems to have the contrast turned up to 11, giving the game a pleasantly 80s luminosity. Think Barnes v Brazil.
— Panini Cheapskates (@CheapPanini) September 4, 2015
9 mins: The first booking of the game goes to Kashia, after he scythes down Hutton, curtailing what was actually a fairly passable Gareth Bale impersonation, powering through the Georgia midfield before he was fouled.
8 mins: Maloney is away on the right, behind the Georgia defence following a neat flick by Fletcher, but the flag goes up for offside.
7 mins: Georgia fall asleep from a Scotland throw on the left and suddenly Naismith is in, nutmegging Kerkvelia in the box but his touch is just a little too heavy and Revishvili comes out to claim.
5 mins: Seems Georgia are playing a 3-5-2, and their left wing-back, Navalovsky, darts down the left and crosses into the box, but it’s too close to Marshall who comes out and claims easily.
3 mins: Suddenly Georgia are on the counter and they have a three-on-three attack, with a chance at their mercy. However, for reasons best known to himself Kazaishvili tries a speculative shot from about 30 yards out, rather than passing to one of the two options in space to his left, and it dribbles rather apologetically wide.
2 mins: Acres and acres of space for Hutton out on the right and he’s found by a nice crossfield ball from Morrison, but the right-back’s cross is to the far post when the better options were at the near.
1 min: And we’re away, Scotland kicking the game off. Looks like Anya’s starting on the left, Naismith in the middle and Maloney on the left of the three behind Fletcher.
The players are out on the pitch, arm in arm, glassy-eyed and singing their respective national anthems. The Georgian one is a particularly dramatic affair. Feels like it should be welcoming a king to court, rather than 22 footballers to a bit of grass.
This is a bit odd. He was in the team for a friendly in the summer but was dropped for these games. Although Scotland aren’t massively short of options in central midfield, given that Darren Fletcher and James McArthur are both on the bench tonight.
@NickMiller79 I'm obviously biased, but I can't help but wish human wildcard Charlie Adam was in the Scotland squad. Who knows what he'd do?
— STOKECITY USA (@josher71) September 4, 2015
And then there’s Rob Smyth’s splendid Golden Goal on Ian Wright, specifically his absurd chip against Leeds back in 1995.
Ian Wright was a fox outside the box, never mind inside. The majority of his goals were scored with the explosive aggression that defined his career, but he was also a specialist in the most cunning type of finish, the chip or lob. It was those goals which provided the most memorable demonstrations of one of Wright’s greatest qualities: his imagination.
When he scored with a looping snapshot from 20 yards against Manchester United in the 1993 Charity Shield, the Sky commentator Martin Tyler exclaimed:“Wright! Och! How does he do it? How does he do it?” The question ostensibly referred to Wright’s execution, but it carried an equally important, if less catchy, implication: how does he even come up with the idea to do it?
Then there’s Richard Foster’s piece about Crystal Palace, which doesn’t have much to do with Scotland but is very good anyway. It’s from his book about the playoffs ‘The Agony And The Ecstasy’.
What surprised me most is how much brilliant businessmen lose their minds when they get involved in football,” says Parish. “How they are just prepared to win at all costs, no matter what the money. One of the great myths in the Premier League is that the more money you spend the better you do.” It is a fair point, as many have proved that success outside football is no guarantee of achievement within the game but the 50-year-old appears to be bucking that trend as he enters the sixth year of co-owning Crystal Palace.
In setting out his aims and expectations for the season, there is a real sense of pride in what has been achieved over the last five years. “We would like to continue to progress,” says Parish. “We have finished higher every year since I bought the club with the guys so, if we could do that again, that would be great.” There cannot be many clubs who can point to such a remarkable renaissance over the last five years, from impoverished Championship stragglers to a healthy mid-table Premier League outfit.
Pre-game reading? How about Russell Martin outlining how much Scotland deserve to be at Euro 2016:
Scotland deserve to be at the finals,” Martin insisted. “We certainly wouldn’t show ourselves up. With the fans and everyone else feeling good about us at the moment, we deserve to be there and we have got ourselves in a great position to do that.
“Whenever we go abroad, you see how much it means to our fans. In my opinion, we will add to a tournament with what we have in our squad now. With the whole country behind us, it would be pretty special.”
So no real surprises for Scotland, then, with Steven Fletcher starting up top, supported by Ikechi Anya, Shaun Maloney and Steven Naismith. The formation for Georgia outlined below is the one suggests by the Uefa site, although there were suggestions before they game that they’d play three at the back.
Team news
Georgia
Revishvili; Lobjanidze, Kashia, Kverkvelia, Navalovski; Amisulashvili, Kazaishvili, Kankava, Ananidze, Okriashvili; Mchedlidze. Subs: Loria, Makaridze, Khizanishvili, Popkhadze, Gvelesiani, Kakabadze, Merebashvili, Kvekveskiri, Kenia, Daushvili, Vatsadze, Tskhadadz.
Scotland
Marshall; Hutton, Robertson, R.Martin, Mulgrew; Morrison, Brown (C); Maloney, Naismith, Anya; S.Fletcher. Subs: Gordon, Ritchie, Griffiths, McArthur, Whittaker, Forrest, Russell, D.Fletcher, Greer, McGregor, C.Martin, Hanley.
Referee: Ovidiu Haţegan (Romania)
Preamble
They’ve been quietly optimistic in Scotland for a little while now. There’s a collection of fine young talents bubbling under the surface, with the likes of Ryan Gauld, Andrew Robertson and James Forrest, among others, the ones to provide the optimism. Not all of those are currently in the squad, but they’re doing pretty well anyway, particularly when you compare them to Ireland, who have been something akin to a limp mess in the last couple of years and who trail Scotland by a crucial couple of points and perhaps more importantly a fair old slice of optimism.
Gordon Strachan’s men are not favourites to go through in the top two spots from Group D, with group-leaders Poland and those German chaps who have proved quite useful recently ahead of them, but such is the nature of the qualifiers this time they’re still in with a hefty chance of making it through. If Poland and Germany cannot be overhauled, then the next target will be the best third-placed slot, which is very much in their reach. Sure, it does feel faintly absurd that a team can be the third-best team in their group and still make it through to France next year, but one imagines Scotland won’t be especially concerned about stuff like that.
A win in Tbilisi tonight will, for the moment at least, put Scotland above Germany and into the automatic qualification places, although of course the Germans face the Poles in the group’s big game of the night over in Frankfurt. So while it might not last too long, three points in Georgia will edge them a little closer. They will be hoping it all goes a bit better than the only other time they travelled to Tbilisi, when Alex McLeish’s side’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008 were given a solid kick in the pants with a 2-0 defeat to the Georgians, a defeat that ultimately proved fatal. Had they won that one, they would’ve finished a point ahead of France, after Raymond Domenech’s ever-entertaining side drew their final game against Ukraine and scraped through. Here’s what Andy Hunter made of Scotland that night:
Scotland were reacquainted with the spectre of glorious failure in Tbilisi as their remarkable threat to the established world order was punctured by the unexpected panache of Georgia. Qualification for Euro 2008 remains in the hands of Alex McLeish, but it will require victory over Italy in their final game to guarantee the prize stays there and does not form another chapter entitled “If Only”.
Such a demoralising denouement is undeserving of a fine Scottish campaign, which could also be saved with a draw against the world champions on November 17 and defeat for France in Kiev four days later, but their downfall was self-inflicted last night. With a performance far removed from the joy and style of the defeat of Ukraine on Saturday the true cost of that bruising encounter was exposed. Gone was the momentum, the composure and balance of Hampden Park as Georgia, with three teenagers in and leading talents out, belied their lowly place in Group B.
If there is failure tonight, it might not be quite so glorious, given that the Scots haven’t blazed quite as much of a trail through the group quite as much as they did back then, when they twice beat France in wonderful but vaguely implausible circumstances. It is similar in as much as there is a trickier task looming on the horizon, specifically in the shape of Germany who visit Hampden Park on Monday, so two defeats, or even no wins from these two games could take an enormous pin to their balloon.
Still, Wee Gordon is keeping his chin up, hoping a positive mental attitude will see his boys through:
We hear so many people being negative about Scottish football in general, especially over the last couple of weeks, with European results and whatever, so we need to believe in ourselves more than ever.
“People are always looking for the banana skin – but it’s our job to think different, to get the rest of the country believing in us and in the Scottish game. The game’s been through hard times and we need to pick it up somehow.”
And perhaps it will. This isn’t quite a must-win game for Scotland, since there are three to come after this and one of them is in Gibraltar, but it’s near enough. Three points, please Gordon.
Kick-off: 5pm BST
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