Zestaponi missed the chance.

Zestafoni - Gyori ETO 1-2

The debut of Zestaponi” in the UEFA Cup turned has turned out to be unsuccessful. After playing to a 1:1 draw two weeks ago in Hungary, the Georgian cup holder lost 1:2 at home, thus giving up its spot in the second round of the qualification stage to the Hungarian team “Gyor Eto”.

Zestaponians played a hard match right up to the last in their already traditional fighting spirit, but in the end they could do nothing against a more experienced opponent.

A goalless draw would have been an acceptable outcome for the Georgians, and this is how the first half ended. After half time the host team started playing actively and Beka Gotsiridze scored a goal in the 51st minute. Fans were still celebrating this goal when “Gyor” scored an equalizer, silencing the stadium.

If the game ended 1:1, the teams would have played to extra time. This was not to be however, as two substitutes who entered the game in 66th minute, Kovac and Palkovic, finished a beautiful goal combination that finally put the game to an end.

“Zestaponi” tried its best with the remaining time, yet, the team could not even create ball movement and there was no chance of an equalizing goal.

After match, the Head Coach Sandor Egervar of “Gyor Eto” stated in the press conference, “I am very happy. We played a very bad first game but this time we were more mobilized and managed to win a very important game. ‘Zestaponi’ is a very good team, with very good fighting spirit, and I wish them luck in winning the Georgian championship.”

Temur Makharadze, the Head Coach of “Zestaponi” also made a statement after the game. “We had a very good chance of making it into the second round and it is very sad that we missed it. It was a very intense game and our opponent won mostly based on experience. It is clear that “Gyor” is a higher class team than “Zestaponi”. We could not jump higher. I will only remind you that our team consists of mainly of boys between the age of 19 to 20, and they received great experience from these two matches.”