Georgia | VS
| Latvia |
| Date/Time: | Sep 2, 2011, 5:00 pm (GMT)
|
| Competition: | UEFA Euro 2012 Qualifying |
| Live/Repeat: | Live |
| Venue: | Boris Paichadzis Erovnuli Stadioni (Tbilisi) |
Georgia hope for more home comforts
Yet to be beaten at home in Group F, Georgia will look to maintain their outside chance of a place at UEFA EURO 2012 when Latvia come to Tbilisi.
• Temuri Ketsbaia's side beat both Malta and Croatia 1-0 in Tbilisi after holding Israel to a 0-0 draw in their opening home fixture in qualifying. However, they have struggled to match that form on the road, taking two points from four away games.
• One of those points was earned in Latvia on 12 October last year, though Georgia had been on course for all three. David Siradze put the visitors ahead after 74 minutes but Skonto FC midfielder Aleksandrs Cauņa equalised a minute into added time.
• Georgia's record in six games against Latvia reads W2 D2 L2 (W0 D1 L1 in Tbilisi).
• The section rivals first played each other in a Riga friendly on 26 June 1994, Georgia winning 3-1. They met again in a friendly tournament in Malta on 6 February 1998, with Georgia prevailing 2-1 this time. However, they have not beaten Latvia since.
• The sides were pooled together in UEFA EURO 2000 qualifying and contested their first competitive fixture in Riga on 10 October 1998. Andrejs Štolcers scored the only goal of the game for Latvia, who were led by a Georgian coach, Revaz Dzodzuashvili.
• Dzodzuashvili had been replaced by Gary Johnson by the time the teams met again in Tbilisi. Efforts from Shota Arveladze and Mikheil Kavelashvili put Georgia in a winning position, but Imants Bleidelis and Igors Stepanovs replied to make it 2-2 at the end.
• The sides' most recent meeting before UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying was a February 2008 friendly in Tbilisi that Latvia won 3-1.
• More recently, Latvia's SK Liepājas Metalurgs tackled Georgia's FC Dinamo Tbilisi in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. Metalurgs won 2-1 at home but lost the tie following a 3-1 reverse in Tblisi.
