On February 22 and 24, friendly matches will be held between Spanish and Georgian U-17 teams. Koba Zhorzhikashvili, head coach of Georgian U-17 team, informed "World Sport" with this information. These matches will be quite interesting. Spain always had a strong team. The matches will be held in Spain.
U-17 team will hold elite-round matches of European Championship in March. They have already started preparation for it. Now, they are training in Tbilisi. On January 20, they will leave for Ureki. The team of Zhorzhikashvili went through the elite-round by beating Sweden and Poland and playing draw against England.
Host France, Belarus and Norway will be opponents of Georgia in "elite".
"We started training at the national stadium on January 3. We will be in Ureki from January 2 till February 2. We will work on technics-tactics and will hold test matches. We do not know yet, which team will be our opponent but supposedly, we will play against First League teams" - stated Zhorzhikashvili to "World Sport". He is training 30 football players at the national stadium and he will take only 24 players to Ureki. The coach is without legionaries yet, but Bachana Arabuli and Luka Hufnagel will be in Spain with the team. Arabuli is in reserve team of "Dinamo" Kiev and he might stay in the team. Hufnagel is in U-17 team of "Bayern" Munich.
Besides that, Zhorzhikashvili told us other interesting news:
"It is good that you often write about unknown young Georgian players who are in Europe. We chose 4 players abroad. We want them to play in the match against Spain. These players are: Giorgi Tarkashvili (Belgian "Beerschot"), Levan Omanidze ("Zenit"), Giorgi Eloshvili and Vaja Bedoidze ("Alania" Vladikavkaz). Of course, they are in age teams and the most important is that they are citizens of Georgia. I have read about Nika Chkhapelia in your newspaper. He has been invited to Russian U-17 team. Unfortunately, those who have already chosen team of other country and is citizen of that country it is impossible to make them play in our team".
As for a friendly match against Spain, Zhorzhikashvili says that it will be a great experience for the boys: "We have already proved in the match against England, that we are not afraid of anyone. The boys have faith and it is the most important thing. Spain has a very strong team. Gines Melendez is training Spanish team. Melendez have been in Tbilisi and he held seminars".
Zhorzhikashvili considers France as a favorite of elite-round group and it is not surprising because France is the host country of the group. "France held the qualifying round matches in Cyprus and perhaps, we will be able to watch videos of their matches. Temur Ketsbaia and Soso Chedia told me that they would gain videos of these matches. Last August we played against Belarus at Palanga Cup and we beat it with a big score. In spite of that, I liked some of their players. We have to play with full seriousness against Belarus and Norway. France is a favorite. We must fight for taking the first place which will lead us to the final stage. It is our goal".



Ilia Nanobashvili