Stuart James's match report
There were some nervy moments, especially in the dying stages, but Wales are delighted as they leave the pitch in Tblisi. It wasn’t an easy game against awkward opponents and there were times when they needed a bit of luck, but a cracking goal from Tom Lawrence means that Wales have a firm grip on second place in Group D now. First place is probably beyond them; Serbia can win the group by beating Austria this evening. But Wales are four points above the Republic of Ireland, who host Moldova in a bit, and can be full of confidence as they turn their thoughts to hosting Martin O’Neill’s side on Monday. That’s all from me. Thanks for reading and emailing about permutations. You can follow the rest of tonight’s action with Gregg Bakowski. Bye.
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Full-time: Georgia 0-1 Wales
Huge cheers in the away end greet the final whistle. Wales have held on to a huge win, secured by a superb goal from Tom Lawrence.
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90 min+1: There will be three added minutes. In the first of those, a brilliant slide-rule pass inside Davies finds Kakabadze in the clear, on the right of the area. Wales have been ripped open. But instead of shooting, he decides to cross and ends up slamming the ball across the face of goal! Wales have lived dangerously in the last 10 minutes.
90 min: Ben Woodburn replaces Tom Lawrence.
89 min: David Khocholava, a big centre-half, has come on for Gvilia in the Robert Huth role.
88 min: Georgia haven’t given up hope yet. Wales are still a bit too open in the middle. But just when Gvilia looks poised to shoot from just inside the area, the ball’s pinched off his toe by Williams, a vital saving challenge. The ball runs loose and Gunter hacks clear in a panic.
86 min: Maybe not. Georgia are drifting. There’s not much of a spark from the home side now.
83 min: Wales have 10 men behind the ball. Are they asking for it?
81 min: Georgia have perked up in the last few minutes. Their threat is increasing, which is perhaps a consequence of Wales pulling back. The visitors are edgy. They know how damaging an equaliser would be and they want to hold what they have. They make their second change. Dave Edwards replace Joe Ledley.
79 min: Georgia pour forward, Wales open in midfield. They’re all over the place and they’re in trouble. Navalovski’s found in oceans of space on the left of the area. He checks back on to his right foot, sizes up the target and shoots. The ball takes a nick off Williams, though, and Hennessey is able to make a crucial save and gather the ball at the second attempt! Hearts were in Welsh mouths there!
76 min: Jambul Jigauri and Davit Shkirtladze replace Kvekveskiri and Kvilitaia respectively.
74 min: Wales make their first change, Hal Robson-Kanu replacing Sam Vokes. The thinking is that Robson-Kanu will start on Monday.
70 min: Lawrence coolly turns a pass inside to Ramsey, cutting the Georgian midfield open and leaving the midfielder to run at the retreating back four. He opens up his body and curls a shot towards the left corner from 20 yards. Loria dives to his left and tries to hold it, but the ball squirms out of his grasp and bounces off Vokes, looking to gobble up the rebound. The ball loops off target, though I think the flag was up for offside against Vokes.
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67 min: Ramsey charges through the middle and combines with Vokes, who shuffles the ball back to the midfielder in the area. The ball sits up and Ramsey can’t quite take it with him, forcing him to adjust and backheel it to Davies, who sees his volley charged down by Kverkvelia.
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65 min: Wales are deep. Chris Coleman cuts a nervous figure on the touchline.
62 min: Merebashvili’s corner is headed away. Wales aren’t entirely comfortable right now, though.
61 min: An awful pass from Chester gifts possession to Kazaishvili inside Wales’s half. He’s mightily fortunate the Georgian can’t capitalise. He takes too long to work out what he wants to do and Welsh bodies get back. Georgia are encouraged, though, and the dangerous Kakabadze wins a corner with a low cross from the right.
58 min: Wales are after a killer second goal. Allen brilliantly backheels a pass through to Vokes, who’s got space on the left of the area, but he takes too long to sort out his feet and Kakabadze blocks his poked effort.
55 min: Lawrence is booked for catching Kakabadze.
53 min: Lawrence, bursting with confidence after that goal, skips inside from the left, drops a shoulder and tries to find the far corner from 20 yards. The ball bounces not too far wide.
51 min: Now Wales need to be calm. The feeling of relief is immense for them. This is such a precious lead, but don’t be surprised if the nerves continue to jangle as the second half wears on. Georgia have nothing to lose. Apart from, er, the game.
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GOAL! Georgia 0-1 Wales (Lawrence, 49 min)
What a time and what a way to score your first Wales goal! Tom Lawrence, who had a sighter in the first half, takes a pass with his back to goal, but a clever touch allows him to spin past Kverkvelia and make space for a shot from 25 yards. He strikes it cleanly with his right foot and the ball zooms past Loria and into the right corner!
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47 min: Ramsey’s free-kick is poor. Not for the first time. Then, after being astutely found by Allen, his cross is just as bad.
46 min: Wales get the second half underway. Can they get that all-important goal? They need to be clinical. Can they manage it without Gareth Bale? It’s in the balance.
Half-time: Georgia 0-0 Wales
Wales have had chances, but they don’t have a goal. The tension rises. See you in 15 minutes.
45 min+1: And one more thing, if Ireland were currently second, they’d be eighth in the standings on 10 points.
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45 min: Who loves permutations? “If Wales pick up 4 points from their final two games, they will have 18 points in the group, good for second,” says Grant Miller. “Removing their victories over Moldova, they’d have 12 points. If that were to happen, and if Bosnia lose against Belgium, it would leave Bosnia with a maximum of 11 points in the second-place table, putting Wales in the playoffs.”
There, I was right. Sort of.
44 min: The game has lost some flow. Davies’s deep cross out for a throw.
40 min: Ramsey strikes the free-kick straight into the wall.
38 min: Kankava steams into a challenge on Lawrence, taking the midfielder out with a studs-up lunge. He’s lucky not to get a yellow. Lawrence needs some treatment. Kankava, the Georgia captain, apologises to him.
37 min: Georgia launch their first serious attack for a while. Kakabadze finds space on the right and his cross is good. Gvilia rises unchallenged in the middle and looks certain to score, only for his header to bounce just wide of the right post. A lwt-off.
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36 min: Allen. Vokes. Lawrence. Shot! Just over the angle of post and bar from the edge of the area! Wales have had chances.
34 min: Gvilia skews a shot wide from 20 yards. “Having spent hours working out the combinations (when I should be w**king) – whilst I’m confident a point would be fine in the bid to finish 2nd in the group, it also pretty much consigns us to be bottom of the 2nd Place teams table even if we do beat Ireland, so wont be enough,” says Ian Truman. “I hope my maths are wrong however.”
More importantly, why did you add in the asterisks?
32 min: “Stop digging, a point is no good,” Patrick Rogers says.
30 min: Ramsey ambles down the right, trying to work space for a cross. Eventually he does, wrapping his right foot around the ball and flinging a low centre to the near post. Vokes dashes to the near post, in front of his marker, and his bright flick almost squirms into the far corner. Almost. It goes wide, though. A grimace. Close, but Wales’s search for a breakthrough goes on.
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26 min: That said, Bosnia’s next game is at home to Belgium. They could easily lose that. If so, they’d only be able to make 17 points in Group H.
25 min: Okay, maybe a point would be a pretty bad result. Fine. You win. This is open journalism in action.
@JacobSteinberg Jacob, 18 points is unlikely to be sufficient for the eighth qualifying position. A drew and win would probably be the end!
— Stelios J (@Tsaksonakis) October 6, 2017
24 min: “As an Ireland fan I’m wondering if a point really a good result for Wales?” Luke McManus. “Ireland are playing Moldova in Dublin tonight - if we win and Wales draw to Georgia then we are on 16pts and Wales are on 15pts leaving us only needing a draw from the match in Cardiff.”
Absolutely, but Wales have home advantage on Monday night. You could even argue that only needing a point at home could work against them. What if it makes them play too safe?
22 min: Kankava turns adroitly in the middle, looks up and sprays a very interesting pass over the centre of the Wales defence. Kazaishvili is bursting forward from midfield, the volume rises, but Williams turns and acrobatically hooks the ball away just in time. Otherwise the Georgian No10 would have been through on goal. Consider that a warning.
19 min: Ramsey’s cross from the right is headed back across goal by Vokes, but no one in a red shirt can make the most of it in the middke. Moments later, Wales hoick another cross into the Georgia area, but Loria claims it.
17 min: Wales knock the thing about themselves, gradually moving up the pitch. The pitch is a little awkward at times, forcing everyone to be sure of their touch. Wales manage to creep into the final third, though, and they look like they’re in business as Vokes finds Allen on the edge of the area. The ball squirts up sharply, but the midfielder manages to hook a ball to the unmarked King on the edge of the area. He watches it drop carefully before aiming a volley towards the far corner. He doesn’t quite catch it properly, hitting it into the ground, and Loria dives to his right to push it to safety.
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16 min: Wales enjoy a handy spell of possession, lifting mounting pressure from the hosts.
13 min: Kakabadze wins a corner with a nice piece of skill on the right. Georgia are pushing. They look bright and positive. They want to win this, even though they’ve no chance of qualifying, and they’re capable of pulling it off. Wales need to have their wits about them.
11 min: Navalovski takes a crossfield pass from right to left on his chest before stroking a ball into the middle. The covering Ledley hurriedly puts it behind for a corner. Chester heads it away.
10 min: Wales aren’t going to take unnecessary risks at this point. Their approach is conservative and rightly so. They don’t have to be gung-ho. A point wouldn’t be the worst thing to take back to Cardiff before the visit of Ireland.
7 min: Kakabadze almost scoots on to a pass down the right, but it’s too heavy, the ball running out of play. Georgia exerted some pressure there, but Wales did enough to keep them at arm’s length. It might even have been two arms, that’s how comfortable they looked.
3 min: Lawrence bundles inside from the left, coping well with a bobble, and slides a pass through to Ramsey, who’s made a Ljungberg-esque run in from the right. Ramsey takes the ball in his stride and sets himself for a shot. He’s got a clear sight of goal from 18 yards, but he’s holding his head in his hands after pulling it just wide of the left post. A wonderful chance goes begging.
2 min: King whips a cross into the middle from the right. Loria punches it away.
Peep! Off we go! Georgia, all in white, get the game underway, kicking from right to left in the first half. They’re on the attack straight away, but Kvilitaia can’t latch on to a through ball before it runs out of play.
Before we begin, a minute’s silence in memory of Shota Maminashvili, a Georgian goalkeeper who recently passed away at the age of 31. It’s impeccably observed.
Here come the teams. We’ll have the anthems, then it’ll be time for some football. I watched England last night. This has to be better.
If you’re Welsh, what happens if you see this?
Joe Ledley is the sole change for Wales. He’s in for Gareth Bale.
Team news
Georgia: Loria; Kakabadze, Kverkvelia, Kashia, Navalovski; Merebashvili, Kankava, Kvekveskiri, Gvilia, Kazaishvili; Kvilitaia. Subs: Makaridze, Lobjanidze, Khocholava, Kiteishvili, Dvalishvili, Chanturia, Dvali, Hufnagel, Skhirtladze, Aburjania, Jigauri, Kvaskhvadze.
Wales: Hennessey; Gunter, Williams, Chester, Davies; King, Allen, Ledley; Ramsey, Lawrence; Vokes. Subs: Maxwell, Taylor, Bradshaw, Brooks, Edwards, Lockyer, Jonathan Williams, Woodburn, Ampadu, Hedges, Robson-Kanu, Ward.
Referee: Jesus Gil Manzano (Spain).
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This is how #Wales will line up against #Georgia at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena for this crucial #WCQ. #TogetherStronger #GEOWAL pic.twitter.com/bqgjBeFrhc
— Wales (@FAWales) October 6, 2017
Preamble
Hello. If their attempts at reaching a first World Cup finals since 1958 have taught Wales anything, it’s not to get too far ahead of themselves, lest their hopes and dreams come thudding straight back at them like a last-minute Paul Bodin penalty. His team might have been semi-finalists at last year’s Euros, but Chris Coleman doesn’t mind the boredom of taking each game as it comes. Four points from their final two matches in Group D, that’s all Wales need to secure their play-off spot, an exciting thought. But Wales aren’t looking that far forward yet. They aren’t even thinking about what promises to be a dramatic occasion when the Republic of Ireland visit Cardiff on Monday night. Not when they’ve got to confront Georgia in Tblisi first.
It won’t be easy for Wales this evening - and not just because they’re missing the injured Gareth Bale, whose absence will be keenly felt even it presents Aaron Ramsey with an opportunity to step up to the plate. As Coleman’s acknowledged, Georgia are better than their Fifa ranking of 103 in the world. “They’ve got imagination, they create chances and they play risk football,” the Wales manager said yesterday, thinking back to that tricky 1-1 home draw with Georgia last year. Ireland have already been held in Tblisi and the threat posed to Welsh qualification hopes by Kakhaber Tskhadadze’s men should not be taken lightly. Falter here and Wales will be newly vulnerable; Ireland, a point back in third place, expect to beat Moldova at home later in the evening. Tense times.
Kick-off: 5pm BST.
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