Georgian national football team has not held matches against 12 European countries – neither in qualifying nor in friendly. Croatia is among these 12 countries. On March 26, a match will be held on the national stadium in Tbilisi. “The Lelos” who has 6 points at Euro qualifying round will host leader of the group (10 points). Here is an interesting statistical data about Georgia and Croatia.
“World Sport” had already written that only Georgia and Croatia were European teams which have not lost a match in 2010.
The last time Georgia lost was against Bulgaria 2:6 on October 15, 2009. Croatia lost against England 1:5 in 2009. Since then, “The Lelos” has not lost 9 matches (4 victories, 5 draws), Croatians – 14 matches (11 victories, 3 draws). Statistics of “Vatreni” (nickname of Croatians) is really impressionable.
Both countries started participation in the qualifying round since 1996. Since then, they competed in 8 qualifying rounds.
Georgia: 1996 qualifying – the 3rd place (among 6 teams), 1998 – the 4th (among 5 teams), 2000 – the 6th (among 6 teams), 2002 – the 3rd (among 5 teams), 2004 – the 5th (among 5 teams), 2006 – the 6th (among 7 teams), 2008 – the 6th (among 7 teams), 2010 – the 6th (among 6 teams).
Average: the 4,8th place.
Croatia: 1996 qualifying – the first place (among 6 teams), 1998 – the 2nd (among 5 teams), 2000 – the 3rd (among 6 teams), 2002 – the 1st (among 5 teams), 2004 – the 2nd (among 5 teams), 2006 – the 1st (among 6 teams), 2008 – the 1st (among 6 teams), 2010 – the 3rd (among 6 teams).
Average: the 1,75th place.
As you see, Croatia has never been below the 3rd place. They missed the final stage only twice from the previous 8 qualifying rounds (Euro-2000 and Mundial-2010). “Varteni” got in playoff twice and beat its opponents – Ukraine (2:0, 1:1) to go through Mundial-1998 and Slovenia (1:1, 1:0) to go through Euro-2004.
Croatiaplayed at World and European Championships three times. They showed the best result in 1998 when they took the 3rd place.
All qualifying results of Georgia and Croatia are interesting.
Georgia:
Overall: 82 matches, 20 victories, 16 draws, 46 losses, balls 90:131, 76 points.
Home: 41 matches, 14 victories, 12 draws, 15 losses, balls 49:48, 54 points.
Away: 41 matches, 6 victories, 4 draws, 31 losses, balls 41:83, 22 points.
Croatia:
Overall: 84 matches, 52 victories, 23 draws, 9 losses, balls 161:63, 179 points.
Home: 42 matches, 28 victories, 13 draws, 1 loss, balls 92:25, 97 points.
Away: 42 matches, 24 victories, 10 draws, 8 losses, balls 69:38, 82 points.
Croatialost home match only once and it happened in autumn 2008 against England (1:4). Croatians played 19 away matches without receiving goals and there were only 9 away matches when they could not score goals. Six 0:0 were played.
Croatians won 6 away matches and lost only once – against England 1:5.
Georgian team won 2 home matches with a great difference (against Wales 5:0 and Poland 3:0) and lost 4 times. “The Lelos” could not score goals in 12 home matches and did not receive goals in 15 home matches.
Last 10 home matches of Georgia: 2 victories, 5 draws, 3 losses, balls 6:8.
Last 10 away matches of Croatia: 7 victories, 1 draw, 2 losses, balls 22:12.
It is known for everyone that Georgia has bad statistic in March – they won only one match from 8 and played one draw. Croatians held 8 matches in March: 6 victories and 2 draws.
March 26 is not a lucky date for Georgians – they lost against Greece 1:3 in 2005. On March 26, Croatians played against Iceland and beat it 4:0. It was in 2005.
According to this data, Croatia is top-class and is one of the strongest teams. But they also lost against Macedonia (0:2), played draw against Malta (1:1) and could not beat Estonia at home (0:0).
Croatians remember shot of Temur Ketsbaia – at the qualifying stage of Champions League in 1997. “Newcastle” beat “Croacia” Zagreb 2:1 at home. “Newcastle” lost away match 1:2 and at the 120th minute Ketsbaia scored goal. “Newcastle” went through the next round and “Croacia”…
Ilia Nanobashvili
