Georgia national football team


The Georgia national football team represents the country of Georgia in men's international football matches, and it is controlled by the Georgian Football Federation. The Georgian team's first match took place in 1990, while Georgia was still part of the Soviet Union. The team have attempted to qualify for each major tournament from Euro 1996 onwards, but have not achieved qualification yet. Home games are played at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena in Tbilisi.

History

The history of the Georgia national football team began in 1990, when the team played their first international match against Lithuania, the first country to accept an invitation. The match was held on 27 May 1990 at national stadium. Georgia were coached by Givi Nodia. The friendly match ended in a 2–2 draw. This was the only match prior to the declaration of independence on 9 April 1991. Soon afterwards the team played another friendly match against Moldova.
The Georgian Football Federation became a member of both UEFA and FIFA in 1992, enabling Georgia to play competitive matches. The first of these came in September 1994, a 1–0 defeat to Moldova as part of the qualifiers for Euro 1996. Georgia finished third in their group, ahead of Moldova and Wales, but seven points behind second-placed qualifier Bulgaria.
Georgia failed to qualify for 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, obtaining 10 points and finishing in fourth place, level on points with Poland. At this time Georgia reached forty-second place in the FIFA World Ranking.
In the UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying the Georgia national team won one match, drew two and finished bottom of the group with five points. This marked the beginning of a period of decline for Georgian football.
The team finished fifth with seven points in their qualifying group for Euro 2004, although they defeated Russia with a goal scored by Malkhaz Asatiani.
In the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers Georgia beat Albania 2–0 at home and Kazakhstan away 2–1. They finished sixth with ten points in Group 2.
Georgia were sixth out of seven teams in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying group with ten points. They defeated Scotland 2–0 at home and the Faroe Islands 6–0 away and 3–1 at home.
Héctor Cúper became the manager of Georgia in August 2008. During the qualification round for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Georgia failed to win any matches and finished sixth with three points. Cuper didn't extend his contract, and on 6 November 2009 Temur Ketsbaia was appointed as the new manager of the Georgian national football team. Ketsbaia resigned as manager after a 4–0 defeat at home to Poland in the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers on 14 November 2014, having previously stated he would do so before the match regardless of the result.
In June 2016, Georgia beat the two-times reigning European champions Spain 1–0 in their final pre-Euro 2016 friendly.
In 2018, they were the first team to earn promotion in the new UEFA Nations League. They scored the event's first goal in a UEFA Nations League D game in Kazakhstan before beating Latvia twice and Andorra, with 2 games still to spare.

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

UEFA European Championship

UEFA Nations League

Head-to-head record

As of 19 November 2019
Opponents

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Total: 63 countries
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Recent results and forthcoming fixtures

2019

2020

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying matche against Switzerland on 15 November 2019 and the friendly against Croatia on 19 November 2019.
Caps and goals as of 19 November 2019 after the match against Croatia.

Recent call-ups

The following players have not been called up for the upcoming matches but have been called up for the team in the last 12 months.
INJ
INJ
INJ
Lists of 10 players with the most caps and top goalscorers for Georgia, as of 10 June 2019 :

Most caps

Top goalscorers

Managers

As of 5 September 2019
ManagerGeorgia careerPlayedWonDrawnLostWin %
Givi Nodia1990
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Giga Norakidze1991–1992
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Aleksandre Chivadze1993–1996
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Vladimir Gutsaev '1996
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David Kipiani1997
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Vladimir Gutsaev1998
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Gigla Imnadze '1998
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Vladimir Gutsaev1998–1999
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Johan Boskamp1999
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David Kipiani / Revaz Dzodzuashvili2000–2001
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Aleksandre Chivadze2001–2003
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Ivo Šušak2003
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Merab Jordania2003
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Gocha Tkebuchava '2004
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Alain Giresse2004–2005
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Gaioz Darsadze '2005
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Klaus Toppmöller2006–2008
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Petar Segrt 2008
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Héctor Cúper2008–2009
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Temur Ketsbaia2010–2014
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Kakhaber Tskhadadze2014–2016
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Vladimír Weiss2016–
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Notable results

DateTeamResultTeam
16 November 1994
7 June 1995
11 October 1995
10 September 1997
11 October 1997
1 September 2001
27 March 2002
30 April 2003
15 November 2006
7 February 2007
17 October 2007
20 August 2008
26 March 2011
6 September 2013
4 September 2015
7 June 2016
8 September 2019