Swiss striker Stéphane Chapuisat capped his competitive comeback from international retirement with the final goal in his country's 4-1 home victory over Georgia in Basel on Sunday.
Switzerland coach Koebi Kuhn watched his side produce an impressive performance inside the Saint Jakob stadium, as Georgia succumbed with relative ease in the EURO 2004™ Group 10 qualifying encounter. Former Under-21 striker Alexander Frei opened the scoring eight minutes before the interval with a free header from a cross.
Georgia's Shota Arveladze, who plays his club football in Scotland with Rangers FC, equalised shortly after the hour mark with a superb header back accross goal before the hosts made sure of the points with three further goals. FC Basel's Hakan Yakin, playing in his home stadium, marked an impressive performance with his side's second goal drilling the ball through Gvaramadze's legs before Patrick Müller made it 3-1 on 74 minutes with a free header from a corner.
The stage was then set for 33-year-old BSC Young Boys striker Chapuisat to complete the victory with nine minutes remaining, scoring his first international goal since coming out of international retirement in August after a pass had split the Georgian defence a striker got through rounded Gvaramadze and crossed to Chapuisat to find the empty net.
On Saturday, Russia beat the Republic of Ireland 4-2 at the Lokomotiv stadium in Moscow in the other Group 10 fixture. Albania complete the lineup in the five-team section
Webmaster View: I didn't get the opportunity to view the whole game but i was very disapointed in the score. On paper Switzerland has no better team than Georgia. I must ask why were two right backs playing the game (Shekiladze and Sajaia)?. Any why was Gakhokidze dropped?. I would have much preferred Shashiashvili of Dinamo Tbilisi to start the game as he is a much better defender than Sajaia. Also I feel Kinkladze has been out of form for years and i would much prefer Burduli to start the game. I saw the goals on Eurosport later on and all of the Swiss goals were avoidable. Two free headers and two other goals which were avoidable if players had been marking properly. Lookimg on the bright side Shota Arveladze scored a superb header and you could see by his celebration what it meant to him. The next game against Russia will be very tough but i'm sure Georgia will win. I hope for the Russia game some changes are made. Against Russia i would start with:
Gvaramadze, Shashiashvili, Khizanishvili, Kaladze, Kobiashvili, Rekhviashvili, Nemsadze, Jamarauli, Burduli, Gakhokidze, Demetradze. Sh Arveladze
Teams:
Referee: HRINAK Vladimir (SVK)
Booked: Haas (Switzerland), Rekhviashvili, Kaladze, Shekiladze, Kobiashvili (All Georgia)
Attendance: 20,000
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