Less than 24 hours are remaining till the match between the Georgia and the Russia national teams. The teams held practices at “Mikheil Meskhi” stadium.

The tribunes will be crowded because match against Russia is always important for Georgian fans. All tickets were sold out 2 days before the match. Tbilisi City Hall made a decision and fans, who do not have tickets, will be able to watch the match on a big screen in Vake Park.

Two weeks ago “Bears” beat Romania. Head coach Alexander Pervukhin closed open practice. Tomorrow’s match will show what the Russian coach is hiding from us.

Alexander Pervukhin: “Why do you think I have arrived in Georgia for failure? Yes, we have a bad tradition against you. We have lost all matches since 2002 but we will try to play well. 99 per cent of my boys have not seen 30 000 fans together and even if they are our opponent’s fans, it is a great stimulus to play in front of such big audience. I wish you good luck at World Cup!

We were limited while selecting composition and we had 2 main reasons. You are preparing for World Cup, we want to depart for Japan with you after 4 years and we are starting to build a new team. So, we are making accent on young players. Besides that, there are 7 players who we wanted to have in the national team but they were called up for Sevens team.

Tsnobiladze brothers are not called up because we are building a new team. One brother is 32 years old and the second – 34. When they received citizenship of Russia they stated they would never play against Georgia and they had no problems during 4 years”.

The Georgia national team and its head coach Milton Haig showed up late at the stadium.

Milton Haig: “Before World Cup we want to see young players on the field and they will be in lineup. We trust them and gave them chance and now they must show us what they can do. The Russia national team has strengthened”.

Shalva Sutiashvili, captain of our national team, stated the following:

“Our goal is to beat the opponent and young players must show themselves. It is tough to say how we will win the match. We must fulfill our tasks and it will bring us to success”.

The 2015 European Championship

IV round. 14 March

Tbilisi. “Mikheil Meskhi”. 17:00

Georgia – Russia

Georgia: 15. Merab Kvirikashvili, 14. Giorgi Aptsiauri, 13. Davit Kacharava, 12. Merab Sharikadze, 11. Aleksi Khutsishvili, 10. Lasha Khmaladze, 9. Vasil Lobzhanidze; 1. Mikheil Nariashvili, 2. Simon Maisuradze, 3. Davit Zirakashvili, 4. Giorgi Nemsadze, 5. Vakhtang Maisuradze, 6. Shalva Sutiashvili, 7. Mamuka Gorgodze, 8. Beka Bitsadze.

Substitutes: 16. Zurab Zhvania, 17. Karlen Aseishvili, 18. Levan Chilachava, 19. Kote Mikautadze, 20. Lasha Lomidze; 21. Vazha Khutsishvili, 22. Tamaz Mchedlidze, 23. Muraz Giorgadze.

Not on the list: Anton Peikrishvili, Levan Datunashvili, Giorgi Tkhilaishvili, Sandro Todua, Lasha Malaguradze, Giorgi Begadze.

Head coach: Milton Haig (New Zealand)

Coaches: Ilia Maisuradze, Ilia Zedginidze, Irakli Machkhaneli, Michael Bradley (Ireland), Didier Bes (France)

Russia: 15. Vasily Artemyev, 14. Mikhail Babaev, 13. Dimitry Gerasimov, 12. Vladimir Rudenko, 11. Igor Kurashov, 10. Ramil Gaisin, 9. Alexey Shcherban; 1. Sergey Novoselov, 2. Stanislav Selskiy, 3. Innokenty Zykov, 4. Andrei Garbuzov, 5. Andrei Ostrikov, 6. Andrei Temnov, 7. Pavel Butenko, 8. Viktor Gresev.

Substitues: 16. Vladimir Korshunov, 17. Sergey Sekisov, 18. Andrei Igretsov, 19. Artem Patakhov, 20. Nikolay Serkov; 21. Rushan Iagudin, 22. Yuri Kushnarev, 23. Andrei Otrokov.

Head coach: Alexander Pervukhin

Referee: Neil Hennessy (Wales)

Germany – Romania

Portugal – Spain