The Tskhinvali Post
Match1 May 2027
David Matei leads the rout of Sapovnela
3‑0, and David Matei took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Tskhinvali tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A brace, and David Matei takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Matei provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Vintage Dário Júnior — 7.84
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.84, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match1 May 2027
Tskhinvali make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Matei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad3 May 2027
Home is on Pedro Romano's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Tskhinvali are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 May 2027
Filipe Cirne in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces3 May 2027
Tskhinvali supporters have found a favourite in David Matei
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. David Matei has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Nobody could get near Lasha Lobjanidze
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
- Player ratings A masterclass from Goga Janelidze
- The dugout No hiding place for Pedro Romano
- Squad Tskhinvali count the cost of losing Aleksandre Chakvetadze