Pressure on Sagnol to revive Georgia

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was not the only man making a return to international football on Thursday night.

As the 39-year-old set up the Viktor Claesson goal that saw Sweden edge Georgia 1-0 in their opening World Cup qualifier, Willy Sagnol got a glimpse of the huge task he let himself in for when he agreed last month to take over as Georgia coach.

The 44-year-old former right-back played 58 times for France including the 2006 World Cup final defeat to Italy, and began his managerial career in 2013 with the France under-20 team.

He then failed at Bordeaux and has not been seen in a management role since 2017, when he was Bayern Munich's interim boss.

Now, Sagnol is facing the double challenge of not only creating a competitive team but of convincing the Georgian football public that he is the man for the job.

"Sagnol's appointment astonished everyone in Georgia," football journalist Bidzina Baratashvili told AFP.

"He was a good footballer but has a limited experience as a coach and has not been professionally active for several years."

Sagnol had cited "family reasons" behind his decision to retire temporarily from football, but said he was "now fully concentrated on the mission in Georgia".

The Frenchman told AFP that he chose to take the job after the Georgian football federation made clear their "real desire" to have him on board.

"When you feel so much desire, it motivates you even more," Sagnol told AFP.

"And I also think that the development project implemented in the Georgian federation for several years now is really worth a shot."

Sagnol faces a monumental task in the World Cup qualifiers as, apart from Zlatan's Sweden, his team is also grouped with Greece, Kosovo and next opponents Spain. Only the group winners qualify automatically.

"We are in a tough group," Sagnol said, adding that Georgia's football federation "has not given me a specific objective for this qualifying group."

"It is a federation which wants to continue to grow, to continue to progress. We must have positive developments compared to recent years."

That appraisal, however, does not quite chime with the words coming from the federation whose vice-president Alexandre Iashvili told AFP that "the minimum objective (in the group) is third place".

"The next objective is to win in Group C of the Nations League and then to play in the European Championship," said Iashvili.

Easier said than done in a country where football, which peaked with Dinamo Tblisi's 1981 Cup Winners' Cup triumph, has been in steady decline since the end of Soviet rule in 1991.

"Sagnol faces a tough task to rebuild Georgia's national team from scratch, to make a breakthrough following three decades of decline," said football analyst Sandro Tsnobiladze.

"Since independence from the Soviet Union, Georgian football has seen a steady deterioration in professional standards and knowledge," he said.

On Sunday, Sagnol will get his second chance as Georgia host Spain in Tbilisi.

The stadium will not be full but nor will it be empty as the federation has been permitted to sell 30 percent of tickets. That may give the fans a chance to let Sagnol know first-hand what they think of his appointment and his team.