“Dila” Gori will host “Rapid” Vienna on Thursday at the stadium of Mikheil Meskhi in the responsive match of UEFA Europe League Play Off. “Rapid” won 1:0 in Vienna one week ago and now “Dila” has a chance to take revenge.
Both teams trained at “Mikheil Meskhi” on Wednesday evening. Especially funny was training of the hosts - they first greeted with the birthday song to the legendary German player Carsten Ânkeru, who is an assistant of the head coach and then, encouraged by the support of noisy fans, continued training.
The hosts had more academic training and then it was time for press conference and comments:
Zoran Barisic (head coach of “Rapid”): “we saw in the first match, that we are dealing with a strong rival. The difference is small and we will try to play more successfully. We can even go on the attack, but that will be seen during the game. On the other hand, “Dila” has a lot of highly skilled players and I think they would be able to play in European teams."
Stefan Hoffman (captain of “Rapid”): “we respect our opponent, but will try to play more efficiently. And by the way, "Dila" is very dangerous opponent. "
Giorgi Devdariani (head coach of “Dila”): “it will be odd to talk about how important this game is for "Dila" Gori and in general for Georgian football. I think that we are ready for this match. The rest we will see on the field.
As you can see, the coach of “Rapid” is strong specialist. It became clear in the first match, that he had learned our game well, especially the counter-attacks and the fact that they lost 2 final matches in the Austrian championship does not speak about their weakness. On the contrary, they are focused on the Europe League Playoff and as I saw many of the main players did not play against “Admira” and because of this we expect very difficult game and despite of respect we promise them strong fight.
As for that unpleasant fact, which happened against Georgians in Vienna, of course this was not nice, but I would like to assure our fans that players and coaches of “Rapid” were not guilty. And I am asking them to calm down and respect Austrians”.
Irakli Modebadze (captain of “Dila”): “I had a concussion of the brain and started practicing four days ago. Let us see, how long I will play. The coach has to decide it. I can say only one thing that my teammates and I will do our best”.
Otar Khizaneishvili (defender of “Dila”): “Everybody knows how important this match is. We promise the spectators a good match. I estimate our chances 50/50”.
Nukri Revishvili (goalkeeper of “Dila”): “I ask the fans to support us hard. Perhaps, we will have a surprise for them”.
Gia Isiani (manager of “Dila”): “The Austrians will have a lot of fans. 350 fans arrived with the team by charter flight. 170 fans will arrive on Thursday. 3 policemen will come with them. Today some special meetings were held at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Patrol Police. The guests will have special escorts.
Tickets are sold successfully. I want to ask the fans one thing. As there are electronic tickets, I ask the fans to come to the stadium earlier. The Gori fans have invitations. I thank the Tbilisi fans and everybody who will come to support “Dila”.
- What happened in Vienna after the match?
- I cannot call it an incident. As we were explained the Austrian police checked the documents of the Georgians. 2-3 Georgians had emigrational problems but they were released soon”.
“Dila”-“Rapid” match will start at 20:00. Ticket price are 3 and 5 GEL.
Solomon Gulisashvili
