2023-09-21 20:30:10
Discover the compositions of Portugal and Georgia.
Portugal’s French coach, Patrice Lagisquet, expects “a big fight“, a “tough battle» in front of Georgia on Saturday (2:00 p.m.) in Toulouse, which is why he has significantly strengthened his bench in this sector, he confided at a press conference on Thursday.
«I’m expecting a big fight, a tough battle on Saturday“, he said when announcing his team with a bench of substitutes counting six forwards for only two three-quarters.
«We are not used to that (…) but we know that we will need it, they (the Georgians, editor’s note) are trained to be able to maintain a high intensity level for 80 minutes, that is why we must be capable of raising us to this level“, explained Lagisquet.
More “they don’t just have a big pack, they also have very fast rears“, he stressed, adding: “If we want to have even a small chance of winning, we need to do even better than we did against Wales.»
For its first match of this 2023 World Cup, Portugal, in Group C, surprised by holding out against Wales, only really giving in at the end of the match (28-8).
Asked whether this match constituted a sort of final for these two teams in a group also including Australia and Fiji, Patrice Lagisquet gave it half-heartedly.
«At this stage of the competition, both teams can still qualify“, he first replied with a smile, before adding: “Yes, we can see it like that because it’s the team we know best and then in terms of image, we can say to ourselves that it’s the one we can compete against the most.»
On the Georgian side, coach Levan Maisashvili also admitted that it was “a bit of (a) finale but it’s also just the beginning. We only played one match, even if we lost it (against Australia, 35-15, Editor’s note) but yes it’s an important match against Portugal».
Composition of the Portugal team: Sousa Guedes – Storti, Bettencourt, Appleton, Marta – Portela (o), Marques (m) – Simoes, Martins, Granate – Cerqueira, Madeira – Ferreira, Tadjer, Fernandes
Substitutes: Costa, Campergue, Alves, Belo, Wallis, de Freitas, Lucas, Cardoso Pinto
Georgia team composition: Niniashvili – Tabutsadze, Kveseladze, Sharikadze (cap.), Todua – Abzhandadze (o), Aprasidze (m) – Gorgadze, Saginadze, Jalagonia – Mikautadze, Chachanidze – Gigashvili, Mamukashvili, Nariashvili
Substitutes: Zamtaradze, Gogichashvili, Papidze, Cheishvili, Tsutskiridze, Lobzhanidze, Matkava, Tapladze
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