The Tskhinvali Post
Match5 Nov 2026
A chastening European night for Tskhinvali
0‑5 against Utrecht. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Felipe Longo stands alone
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Tskhinvali
Bachana Daraselia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Luka Gagnidze falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Tskhinvali dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Otar Kobiashvili to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Luka Gagnidze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tskhinvali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Avtandil Qazaishvili
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Tskhinvali keep their word to Fabricio Leal
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
- Market The Bachana Daraselia story refuses to die
- Player ratings Saba Mikautadze runs at them all day
- Squad Irakli Azarovi says his piece