The Zugdidi Chronicle
Squad8 Mar 2027
A one-man rearguard from Kakha Janelidze
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nika Ananidze
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match6 Mar 2027
Nowhere to hide for Zugdidi
3‑6 against Tskhinvali, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Tornike Gamsakhurdia scores twice — 8.24
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Levan Janelidze, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market8 Mar 2027
Mikheil Janelidze hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Shota Daraselia signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Shota Daraselia commits to Zugdidi for another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Zugdidi
Archil Lobjanidze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Mar 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zugdidi and Tskhinvali in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
- Boardroom 5 academy graduates step up at Zugdidi
- Market Zugdidi promote Temur Tsitaishvili from within
- Market Lasha Okriashvili steps up from the Zugdidi academy