Coach Vladimir Weiss talks in terms of getting his Georgian team to a first ever major championship. Having done just that with his own country in 2010 when Slovakia went on to beat defending world champions Italy in South Africa and putting them out of the competition, it would be foolish to suggest the task will defeat him.
Having inherited a side that ranked as Europe’s fourth worst when the World Cup draw was made last year, however, there is clearly some work to be done and the 52-year-old admits that the next European Championships, when there will be more places up for grabs, might be a more attainable target.
“When I started the job with Slovakia I was in the same situation that I am now in with Georgia but step by step, day by day, we are moving forward,” he says.
“When I took the job I showed the players a lot of games in which they had been unlucky to lose, games in which single mistakes proved costly. They were unlucky to lose against everyone but that is the team’s history and it is what we are now hoping to change.
“In the World Cup, it is not so easy (to qualify) because there is only one team that automatically qualifies and while there are no Germany, England or France in this group, there is Austria, Serbia and Ireland. It is not so easy.”
Weiss, of course, has only watched his side's defeats back; Guram Kashia, the 29-year-old Vitesse defender who will captain the side on Thursday night in the absence of regular skipper Jaba Kankava, has had to endure quite a few of them first hand and for him, a transformation in the team's fortunes would represent more than merely a job well done.
“It’s hard to explain,” he says, “but I’m Georgian and I absolutely believe that this group of players has something. We have lost seven times to Ireland but from those games we have learned enough to improve.
“We know that they are very good at set pieces and so we must be better at them and at the 16 (the 18-yard line) we need to win our challenges. We have to win more physical encounters in the past. If we do that then we feel we have a chance because we feel that we have technically gifted players who will be able to create chances for tomorrow.”
They will be handicapped by the absence of midfielder Kankava and Ucha Lobjanidze, a defender with Dinamo Tbilisi who started the narrow defeat by Austria last month. The country's record goalscorer, Shota Arveldaze, now manager of Dundalk's Europa League rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv believes the recent change of coach may be actually be the biggest problem as Weiss undoes the tactical switches made under his predecessor.
“Look, I have to be a little bit disappointed,” he says “They did a really good job under the last coach – (Kakhabe) Tschadadze – he changed system, played five at the back and they did well. He had a really good run, played top teams Germany and Poland (and Ireland) and did a really good job. But he had a disagreement over his contract with the chairman of the federation and left. Now, there’s a new coach and we start again.
“As far as I see he has changed the system again to normal system (they played four at the back last month). I’m not happy. I’m looking at my team struggling a bit more than before. We had a good 20 minutes against Austria which wasn’t a bad game for us. We had the chance to get a second goal but (that was at home), not many teams come here and get away with a good result. We have never even got a point here.”
PROBABLE TEAMS
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Randolph (West Ham); Coleman (Everton), Duffy (Brighton), O'Shea (Sunderland), Ward (Burnley); Hendrick (Burnley), Whelan (Stoke City), Brady (Norwich), McClean (West Brom); Walters (Stoke City), Long (Southampton).
GEORGIA: Loria (Krylya Sovetov); Kakabadze (Gimnastic Tarragona), Kashia (Vitesse), Solomon Kvirkvelia (Rubin), Navalovski (Veria); Kazaishvili (Legia, Poland), Daushvili (Dioshgiori); Kobakhidze (Vorskla), Ananidze (Spartak Moscow), Mchedlidze (Empoli); Dvalishvili (Dinamo Tbilisi).
Referee: T Chapron (France).
