Georgian national U-19 team overcame the first qualifying round of European championship 2012, took the first place in Turkey among host team, Poland and Luxembourg. In three matches they gained 7 points, as for goals – 6:2. It is a good result and as a result of it success was not unexpected, because Giorgi Devdariani is a really good coach and has talented players.
“World Sport” has connected Devdariani in Turkey. On November 28 is to be held ballot for Elite round, in the city of Switzerland, Nyon. 28 national teams are divided into seven groups and winners go through the final stage, which is held in Estonia on July 3-15.
Giorgi Devdariani: There is not lack of talented and strong players in any Georgian age team. The same is in my team and I am happy that, for guys we are one team. Giorgi Chanturi,Vako Kazaishvili and almost everyone were very determined. Discipline was in high level. As for others, I repeat that Georgians are also individualists.
- So, other age teams do not have “one team” principle?
- I cannot say anything about it. You would better to ask head coaches of these teams about it.
- Supposedly, the match with Poland was the most difficult, because it was the first match.
- Of course it was. We were losing, but managed to advance and in total, we got advantages. Victory in this match inspired goys for the next matches. Of course against Turkey too, where we played draw 1:1. We had more advantages than our rival, but there was bad umpiring.
- What did the referee do?
- We scored but he did not recognized it, as for Turkey, they abrogated rules and scored goal in such way. Plus, unjust yellow cards for our players, which will have bad effect on Elite-round. After the match, delegates came to us and apologized for unjust umpiring. These mistakes reflected on the match. Maybe it is coincidence but umpiring was bad against Luxembourg too. If we did not achieve our goal, I would not start criticizing referees. Something has to be changed.
- What must be changed? It is not first time when Georgian age team is oppressed, but I do not remember if UEFA has ever had reacted on it.
- There are communicational processes in UEFA. We do not ask them help. We just want us not to be oppressed.
- Who were distinguished players in these three rounds?
- Everyone played well and everyone was distinguished players. Some of them were more distinguished than others, but all of them played big role in our success. I want to mentioned Tornike Grigalashvili and Nika Sandokhadze, who are one year younger than these goys and were played for Koba Zhorzholiani’s u-17 team, I distinguished these two players because they were new players in my team.
- It would be better if players born in 1993 also would play for u-21 team. Perhaps, your wish is also the same.
- I believe with guys and I have a lot of wishes, but everything does not depend on me. Relevant structures have to decide it. I do not have only wish, I have ambitious and possibilities too.
Ilia Nanobashvili
