GEORGIA manager Kakhaber Tskhadadze is contemplating dropping his regular keeper Giorgi Loria for the Euro 2016 qualifier with Scotland in Tbilisi tonight.
Loria, who has been an ever present in his national team and played against Gordon Strachan’s side at Ibrox back in October, is without a club after parting company with Olympiacos at the end of last season.
Nukri Revishvili, who plays for Mordovia Saransk in the Russian Premier League and has won 24 caps, is set to be drafted into Tskhadadze’s side for the Group D match.
The manager said: “He (Loria) is unattached and lacks match fitness so for that reason he may not start tomorrow. That could be a problem. He does not have match sharpness.
“We have had to consider other alternatives. There are other goalkeepers in the squad who we can rely upon. I have to make a decision on who to play."
Former CIS and Georgia defender Tskhadadze added: “Scotland play a very attractive brand of modern football. They have shattered all of the sterotypes which existed about the British game. They play a passing game.
“I have studied Scotland’s past games and they use a lot of short passes and make changes on the wings. I think they will play in a very similar style against us.
“We want to show that we can compete with teams at that level. It will give us confidence that we can finish higher in future qualifying groups. We are very motivated.
“We have lost late goals in this campaign, but we have been working very hard to ensure that does not happen again and we are hopeful we can play for the full 90 minutes.”
Meanwhile, former Dundee and Rangers defender Zurab Khizanishvili, who is set to win his 93rd international cap for Georgia this evening, admitted he would be emotional playing Scotland.
He said: “This is something big in my life to be playing against Scotland because I spent a lot of time in Scotland. I would say it is my second home country after Georgia.
“I hope that Scotland do well, but on the pitch I will be professional and I can’t be a friend any more. This is football.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here