LIVE Georgia – Romania, friendly at the return of Gică Hagi to the national team

• On Saturday, June 6, the national team returns to action for a second verification test. Hagi's “Tricolori” face Wales, in Ghencea, from 20:00.

Almost 25 years after the nightmare with Slovenia, Gheorghe Hagi returns to the forefront of the Romanian national team, which marks the first action after missing the qualification for the World Championship.

Hagi is once again at the helm of the “tricolors” in a moment considered to be one of balance. Romania once again missed a qualification for a World Championship, a goal it has not achieved since the period when the “King” himself was active.

LIVE at 20:00 » Georgia – Romania

Georgia – Romania, probable teams:

Georgia: Mamardashvili – Gelashvili, Dvali, Gocholeishvili – Kochorashvili, Chakvetadze, Mekvabishvili, Azarovi – Mikautadze, Davitashvili, Zivzivadze
coach: Willy Sagnol (age 49, in office from 2021)

Romania: Aioani – Drăgușin, Ghiță, Coubiș – Sorescu, R. Marin, I. Hagi, Borza – Dobre, Fl. Coman, Mihăilă
reserves: Târnovanu, Hindrich, Strata, Matei Ilie, Eissat, Screciu, Cicâldău, Băluță, Moruțan, Baiaram, Louis Munteanu, David Matei
Selector: Gheorghe Hagi (61 years old)
Absent: Man, Ionuț Radu, Bancu, Rațiu (injured) Andrei Burcă, Adrian Rus, Mihai Popescu, Florin Tănase, Darius Olaru, Cătălin Cârjan, Vlad Dragomir, Nicolae Stanciu, Denis Draguș (not included in the lot)

Stadium: “Mikheil Meskhi”, Tbilisi (capacity: 22,754 seats)

Georgia – Romania, friendly without the front line men

Hagi tests the endurance of the “tricolors” against an opponent who has progressed significantly in recent years. The Georgians rely on a more valuable lot (€248 million vs. €99 million, as quoted by us), rely on stars such as Mamardashvili and Kvaraskhelia – absent tonight – and also score in the chapter of homogeneity. The Frenchman Willy Sagnol is a selector from 2021.

However, the friendly character of tonight's match is also defined by the loud absences from the two camps: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who recently won the UCL with PSG, will not play tonight. Hagi does not rely on Ionuț Radu, Rațiu, Bancu and Dennis Man – all of them declared “forfait” the other day.

Gică Hagi, before Georgia – Romania: “My role is to make the players become better”

“Georgia is a homogeneous team that has a lot of experience in the last few years. They have grown a lot, they have a very good coach. A team that likes to have the ball, in my opinion, and very good on fast attacks. We will have to be very careful in both phases, do them very well and try to impose ourselves.

I tried, as a former player, to become one of the best. Now I have been in the coaching position for many years. My role is to make the players better. That's my big goal right now, to make them grow, to be better than before.

It's the end of the championship everywhere, not only here are players missing. For each team we have to take into account this championship final in each country. These are the players I have selected, these are. We have great confidence in them, they are some of the best in Romania. I hope we get a good day and play really well.

From here onwards the work will begin. We have to climb the steps, we are not the best, but we are trying to become. We have time, we have to learn a lot, be careful and progress a lot. That's the only goal, to learn and progress.

We play for the national team and when you wear this shirt you have to be connected, have attitude, be focused, have determination, play with honor, love everything you do.

We hope to see this on the field. After that, my side, I have to place them tactically well, defensively and offensively, let's be better than the opponent. The players love Romania, I hope that I do the right thing, what I have to do from now on, to make them better.

We must be pragmatic, concrete, so the mentality must also be to like to win. We play to win”, said Hagi, in Monday's press conference.

I came in and found a very tight group going forward, especially after missing out on qualifying. We know it was disappointing and we want to give our fans and supporters as much joy as possible. But it is a united group, motivated, full of enthusiasm and looking ahead with a good feeling. We will manage to build and have as solid performances as possible in the future.

Each coach has his personality, his ideas, each one brings something new to the team.

I have noticed that he is a very passionate coach (no – the selector Gheorghe Hagi), he puts a lot of heart, he wants everything to go to training as well as possible and it is also within our abilities to understand this as well as possible.

– Radu Drăgușin, Romania&Tottenham Hotspur defender

Willy Sagnol, superlative about Hagi: “He's a football legend”

Georgia's coach, the Frenchman Willy Sagnol, had only words of praise for his counterpart Gheorghe Hagi, in the pre-game conference:

“Hagi is a bit older than me. Even if he is older than me, he is a legend, a football legend, not only in Romania, but in all of Europe.

I wish him as much success with the national team as he did when he was a player. After the Champions League semi-final against Bayern, we talked and he told me that he wants to be with the national team.

(…) I can now confirm that Kvaratskhelia will arrive and play on June 5th. Many players are missing, which is normal at the end of the season. We will try to make sure that as many players as possible get minutes on the field. The main objective is to be fully prepared for the matches in September.

Considering that Guram Kashia will play his last match for Georgia, I hope we will have a good evolution in these games,” said Willy Sagnol, according to 1tv.ge.

The Georgian national team will play two friendly matches: against Romania on June 2 and against Bahrain on June 5. Both matches will take place at the Mikheil Meskhi Arena in Tbilisi.

The lot chosen by Gheorghe Hagi for the friendly against Georgia

• porter:
  • Marian AIOANI (FC Rapid 1923, 1/0)
  • Otto HINDRICH (Legia Warsaw | Poland, 0/0)
  • Stefan Tarnovanu (FCSB, 4/0);

  defense:

  • Deian SORESCU (Gaziantep FK | Turkey, 23/0)
  • Tony STRATA (Vitória Guimarães | Portugal, 0/0)
  • Radu DRĂGUŞIN (Tottenham | England, 29/1)
  • Virgil GHIțA (Hannover 96 | Germany, 9/1)
  • Andrei COUBIȘ (U Cluj, 1/0)
  • Matei ILIE (CFR Cluj, 0/0)
  • Lisav EISSAT (Maccabi Haifa | Israel, 2/0)
  • Andrei BORZA (FC Rapid 1923, 0/0);

  midfielders:

  • Răzvan MARIN (AEK Athens | Greece, 74/12)
  • Alexandru CICÂLDĂU (Universitatea Craiova, 38/4)
  • Vladimir SCRECIU (University of Craiova, 7/0)
  • Tudor BĂLUĂ (University of Craiova, 12/0)
  • Ianis HAGI (Alanyaspor | Turkey, 53/8)
  • David MATEI (University of Craiova, 0/0);

  ATTACKERS:

  • Olimpiu MORUȚAN (FC Rapid 1923, 17/1)
  • Valentin MIHĂILĂ (Caykur Rizespor | Turkey, 35/5)
  • Ștefan BAIARAM (Universitatea Craiova, 4/1)
  • Alexandru DOBRE (FC Rapid 1923, 6/0)
  • Louis MUNTEANU (DC United | USA, 4/2)
  • Florinel COMAN (Al-Gharafa | Qatar, 20/2).

Andrei Burcă, Adrian Rus, Mihai Popescu, Florin Tănase, Darius Olaru, Cătălin Cârjan, Vlad Dragomir, Nicolae Stanciu and Denis Drăguș are the 9 “tricolors” who remained at the National Football Center in Mogoșoaia.