Georgia vs Turkey preview

May 23, 2012
By: Frank Beresford

The friendly match between the two sides that failed to qualify for the Euro 2012 will be played at Red Bull Arena in Salzburg and there is every chance we will see a very interesting game.

Georgia have been showing a lot of potential since former Newcastle midfielder Temuri Ketsbaia took over the reigns and they did really well during the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

The Crusaders picked up no less than 9 points from first 5 group games, beating very good Croatia side in the process, but several narrow defeats prevented them from challenging for one of the top two places.

Georgia have since beaten Moldova and Albania at home in two friendly games and they are hoping to continue the good run against Turkey.

Temuri Ketsbaia’s team will do everything they can to avoid a defeat and you should know BetVictor pays 3.50 (5/2) on draw.

Coach Ketsbaia has called 22 players for the game against Turkey, with only keeper Giorgi Loria plying his trade in domestic championship.

Turkey managed to win the second place in the group that also contained the likes of Germany, Belgium and Austria, among others, but they were knocked out by Croatia in the Euro 2012 play-offs.

The Turks, therefore, once again missed out on the major tournament, so no wonder boss Guus Hiddink was sacked immediately after the play-offs.

Turkish coach Abdullah Avci was brought to replace him and former Istanbul BB boss was kind of a surprise choice even if he had led the Under-17 side to European Championship title in 2005.

Turkey were beaten at home by Slovakia in his first game in charge, and there are no doubts another poor result would prove a major disappointment.

Abdullah Avci’s side are 1.96 (24/25) with 188BET to win this match, which will be the first of five friendly games in the space of just two weeks.

While experienced players Volkan Demirel, Gokhan Gonul, Emre Belezoglu, Hamit Altintop, Arda Turan and Nuri Sahin are in the squad, the boss also called no less than 16 players who have less than 5 caps for the national team.

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