🦄 Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 v 🇬🇪 Georgia 🐺

[Donathan]

Just now, Willie adie said:

Surely some changes in personnel

McLean and Gilmour might have earned a start.

I'd be tempted to give Nisbet or shankland a turn up front 

I can’t imagine Clarke is going to reinvent the wheel. Georgia aren’t a Cyprus level minnow and we need to put out the best team to win the game rather than experiment.

 

I think it’ll be the same XI if Tierney is fit but if he’s out, then we’ll either go 4-3-3 with Gilmour coming in on or 4-2-3-1 with Stuart Armstrong. 

[KirkieRR]

Georgia aren't a household name but their current form is excellent and they're getting good results in the group. We have to treat them with the same seriousness we'd treat home matches v Spain or Norway.

 

In the hugely unlikely event that we end up comfortably ahead with plenty of game time left, aye, bring on some subs and see what they can do.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

10 minutes ago, KirkieRR said:

Georgia aren't a household name but their current form is excellent and they're getting good results in the group. We have to treat them with the same seriousness we'd treat home matches v Spain or Norway.

 

In the hugely unlikely event that we end up comfortably ahead with plenty of game time left, aye, bring on some subs and see what they can do.

I don't think any country in Europe takes the threat of Georgia more seriously than we do tbf

[BFTD]

They're on a decent run of form at the moment, skooshing their Nations League group against Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Gibraltar unbeaten. Just one defeat since 2021, and that was against Morocco right before they finished fourth at the World Cup. They also beat Sweden at the end of World Cup qualifying, although that was something of a dead rubber. At the moment, they're clearly a bit better than other sides we'd consider to be at their level, and our form has probably pissed them off royally, as they might've thought they had a chance of taking points off us and Norway and sneaking into second place; now they'd likely have to take points off Spain for that to be remotely possible.

I'm thinking 2-1 too. Any more than that will be a very good day, considering that even the top teams can struggle to finish them off.

[Gordon EF]

We're better than they are. But not by enough that we can allow any complacency to creep in. They've shown that they've improved recently. They're tough to beat, have some genuine attacking threat in Kvaratskheliann and they will absolutely see this group as their best chance yet of getting to a major tournament.

They'll be spewing that we've beaten Spain and Norway, absolutely. But this is probably their last big chance to put themselves in contention. I don't think we'll see any changes to the starting 11 that aren't forced through knocks or fitness. We may well switch to a more attacking 4-3-3 if teh situation requires it but we've shown that the current set up is attacking enough for games like this when it needs to be.

[jaggyness]

I get the argument about players being tired but do any of us really think we're leaving out McGregor or McGinn? I leave McTominay out of that as he's played very little football and actually thought it showed as he played the cross for second goal after chasing and carrying the ball, looked fresher than most. You can obviously accommodate Gilmour and McLean/Armstrong coming in by pushing McGinn on one. I think we'll see one of the midfielders change, not more than that

Edited June 18, 2023 by jaggyness

[2426255]

You could see from both Georgia games Kvaratschelia is gifted, but he seemed to be trying to do too much. He is still young at 22, so maybe showing a little inexperience. I think Robbo has played in that way in the past if things aren't going well

[Sugar_Army]

No way will we be complacent.  SC will never allow it. 

Next two games are massive.  Georgia home and Cyprus away.  If we really want to qualify then those are two fixtures we should be looking to take 6 points from.  Not easy but it it is what SC should be demanding. 

Beat Georgia and they could only get 19 points and Norway can only get 16. 

Do that and we head to Spain leading the group with 15 points already in the bag (yes I am getting ahead of myself).

Before we play Spain, Georgia have to play Spain and Norway have play Georgia.  Something has to give there.  

[kennie makevin]

2 hours ago, OmegaSpeedyPro said:

So many factors pointing towards this being a massive banana skin and us disaster striking. 

Hope i'm wrong.

You're right.

[ClydeTon]

Hoping for a fairly routine win. We've only lost once at Hampden since Croatia in the Euros and I don't think Georgia - with all due respect to them - will be adding a second onto that.

Hampden being either full or just short of it will hopefully spring us along to a win, and making it 12/12.

On the flipside, we're Scotland.

[VictorOnopko]

I have the absolute fear about this game - a win obviously puts us miles ahead and should be perfectly doable.  Hopefully we get an early goal (or two) and cruise it.  But, even under SSC we've thrown in some flat performances now and again. I doubt the players will be complacent but they might be a bit tired. We also need to stop Kvaratskhelia who is a pler.

I know this Scotland team and manager are very different from what we've been used to over the years - hopefully my anxiety is totally unwarranted.

 

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

I have faith that SC has a plan for Georgia, and I expect them to setup quite defensively. As good as their results have been, they’ve been in a poor UNL and WCQ group. We need to nullify their counter attacking plans, and control the game.

If anyone is interested, watch the YouTube highlights v Norway and work out how on earth Norway didn’t skoosh that game. Neither of those teams can defend. 

Winning the game would mean we’re effectively qualified with a win in Cyprus. 

It could be a tricky one, but Eastern European teams tend not to play well at Hampden (the reverse also being true). As much as they really need a win, they’ll be playing not to lose.

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

The first Georgian goal is catastrophic from Cyprus. Defending in the 2nd goal also leaves a lot to desire.

They also tried their hardest to gift the Cypriots a goal in the early stages. Highlights miss a few Cypriot opportunities, but that wasn’t a performance to give anyone real fear.

[MarkoRaj]

2 finely taken goal nonetheless

[Monkey Tennis]

17 hours ago, velo army said:

We're pumping these on Tuesday. I don't think it'll even be close. Robbo to run ragged and Wee Billy to pull them apart. 

4-0 Scotland

You're extremely upbeat about this one.

It's a bit worrying.

[deadasdillinger]

Weirdly not nervous for this, the way I would have been in times gone by. 

I think we're fucking excellent at the moment, especially at home, and Georgia didn't look up to much yesterday. 

Let's get them fucking slapped about. 

[Monkey Tennis]

1 minute ago, deadasdillinger said:

 

I think we're fucking excellent at the moment, especially at home, and Georgia didn't look up to much yesterday. 

We really didn't look up to much yesterday either.

Have people simply forgotten that?

 

 

[deadasdillinger]

1 minute ago, Monkey Tennis said:

We really didn't look up to much yesterday either.

Have people simply forgotten that?

 

 

We did exactly what we needed to to win. Kept it tight, didn't panic when Halaand got his inevitable goal, changed the game brilliantly to score two vital goals. I'm not sure what more you want. Name a bigger away result in recent campaigns?

Also, I did say at home especially. 

[ClydeTon]

Having looked into the stats, and think it's worth noting that we go into this on the joint-best (competitive) form in all of Europe, in terms of the last five games - and the outright best if you count the WC Final as a french loss.

The top 5 is as follows:

Scotland - W4, D1, L0 (13/15)

France - W4, D1*, L1* (12/15* - Drew 3-3 with Argentina, lost on Pens)

England - W4, D0, L1 (12/15)

Georgia - W3, D2, L0 (11/15)

Serbia & Hungary - W3, D1, L1 (10/15)

Georgia's inclusion there is a bit misleading as well, with their wins coming against Cyprus, Gibraltar and N. Macedonia, and the draws against Norway and Bulgaria. Our draw, of course, was Ukraine away in the nations league.

With two teams progressing a win at Hampden will all but seal the deal, with Cyprus (A) being a formality to get us over the line.

The Georgians looked all over the shop against Cyprus - unlike us who stuck to our game plan of defensiveness, with only a couple of shaky moments. I think there was a sequence in Georgia-Cyprus where 3 Georgians had an attempt at an own goal.

I'm sure God, or as many may know him, "Steve Clarke", will have a plan on how to nullify any threat posed by them, and get 3 huge points.

Germany, Germany...

 

 

 

 

[Monkey Tennis]

19 minutes ago, deadasdillinger said:

We did exactly what we needed to to win. Kept it tight, didn't panic when Halaand got his inevitable goal, changed the game brilliantly to score two vital goals. I'm not sure what more you want. Name a bigger away result in recent campaigns?

Also, I did say at home especially. 

Of course it was a huge result.  Who's suggesting otherwise?

We were lucky though.  It was one of those fairly freaky games that come along occasionally.

 

The revisionism on here regarding the performance is, however, bonkers.