Weakened, but strong enough

Euro 2004 qualifying/Georgia v Republic of Ireland: If the crumbling hulk of Tbilisi's Dynamo stadium where the Irish under-21s drew yesterday gives a pretty good taste of the city that surrounds it, Lokomotiv's impressive combination of glistening steel and western spec concrete where Brian Kerr's men will go this afternoon is more representative of the willingness here in the Georgian capital to believe that the future can be a much brighter place than the past.

That sense of optimism could hardly be more obvious than when the locals take a minute to consider today's game against Ireland.

Far from being overawed by a side that reached the second round of the World Cup finals last summer and are now overdue a decent performance in this qualifying campaign, there is a strong belief in these parts that the home side can not only beat their visitors today, but go on to mount a serious challenge for a place at next summer's European finals in Portugal.

The available evidence suggests that, as in other areas of their lives, they may have to be a little more patient in their wait for the good times.

Kerr's problems during the build up to this game have hardly gone unnoticed amongst people who keep themselves fairly well up to date on the English club scene.

The absence of players like Robbie Keane, Steve Finnan and Clinton Morrison has clearly provided encouragement ahead of a game which Georgian coach Alexander Chivadze maintains his side cannot afford to lose.

With Milan's Kahka Kaladze missing through injury, Giorgi Kinkladze much less influential than he once was and Temur Ketsbaia well past his best, though, Chivadze has difficulties of his own.

His team's supporters make much of the fact that the Georgians have not yet been beaten at their new stadium. But then, they have not played there too much either, and the likes of Norway, Greece and Romania have all rather routinely won competitive games elsewhere in the city. Hungary are the closest thing the Georgians have managed to a scalp of note in recent times.

In their opening game of this campaign, in Basle last September, Chivadze's men were rather easily overrun, 4-1, not something that the Irish can exactly gloat over in the light of events a month later, but perhaps a better measure of the team's strength than that provided by the local bravado.

Kerr said yesterday that his players need to take four points from this trip if they are to be in with even a shout of qualification, but, he added, "you can see they're determined. They know they can do it and I know they can do it."

At full strength, the matter might almost be beyond question, but Kerr has been stripped of most of his better options over the past week or so.The options he has left ahead of this morning's announcement of the starting line-up do not make for encouraging reading.

In the circumstances, it seems fairly safe to assume Gary Breen rather than Andy O'Brien will partner Kenny Cunningham, the West Ham defender retaining his place despite his problems at West Ham thanks to a combination of John O'Shea's services being more urgently required at left back and the fact that he and the team's skipper have a respectable track record together.

Kerr's comments at yesterday's press conference regarding Kevin Kilbane's general form and his performance in Scotland suggest he will start on the left with Damien Duff being shifted forward once again to be partnered, it seems, by Gary Doherty.

Most difficult to call is Kerr's choice for the right side of midfield.

Yesterday he insisted that, with Colin Healy, Lee Carsley and Alan Quinn all on hand, he is still well served for the position.

In Scotland, though, he said Healy hadn't enough first-team action under his belt to justify a start and the Corkman's position has only worsened since.

Carsley has fared no better since Christmas with less than 90 minutes of competitive football to his name, while the prospect of asking Quinn, who is playing regularly, to make the step up from the wrong end of the first division on his international debut surely represents an unpalatable gamble.

Healy may just get the nod. The 22-year-old's performances against the likes of Russia, Denmark and the USA last year suggested he was capable of contributing a good deal when allowed to press forward but it's worth remembering that in his only competitive outing to date, against the Swiss, the pace of the game seemed to tell and the midfielder made far less of an impact.

On another day, Kerr's options, or lack of them, might prompt a tactical switch that would allow him to start without any of the three while throwing David Connolly into a three-man attack.

The reality, though, is we are almost certainly in for no greater a surprise than the manager opting in the end for Carsley, or even Quinn.

On the plus side, O'Shea's expected switch to left back should relieve Kilbane of some of the workload with which he is generally burdened at international level.

Even aside from his goal, the Sunderland winger did well in Glasgow and, on a day when the striking partnership has just four international goals between it, Kerr could do with him chipping in again up front.

So too could the central midfield partnership, although they must not do so at the expense of providing protection to their defence from the player the Georgians are expected to deploy just behind the front two, almost certainly Ketsbaia.

The Irish would love another start like the one provided by Kilbane in Glasgow, but the Georgians are likely to play with much more passion than the team so easily brushed aside on February 12th.

This time, the Irish will have to apply themselves if they are to beat a technically able and tactically fairly astute team. "This time," as Kerr exclaimed suddenly at one of his press conferences earlier in the week, "it's for real".

GEORGIA: Lomaia (Lokomotiv Tblisi); Amisulashvili (Dynamo Tblisi), Rekhviashvili (Torpedo Metallurg), Khizanishvili (Dundee); Shashiashvili (Dynamo Tblisi), Tskitishvili (Freiburg), Jamarauli (FC Zurich), Kobiashvili (Freiburg); Kinkladze (Derby Co); Ketsbaia (Anorthosis Famagusta), Arveladze (Rangers).

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (Probable): Given (Newcastle); Carr (Tottenham), Breen (West Ham), Cunningham (Birmingham City), O'Shea (Manchester Utd); Healy (Celtic), Kinsella (Aston Villa), Holland (Ipswich Town), Kilbane (Sunderland), Doherty (Tottenham), Duff (Blackburn Rovers).

Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece).