Georgians beat nine-man South Africa

Georgia 4-1 South Africa
Georgia secured an emphatic 4-1 victory over FIFA World Cup finalists South Africa in a friendly match marred by two dismissals. The visitors' Lesley Maniatela and Tabang Molefe were sent off, as temperatures rose in the Lokomotivi staduim in Tbilisi.

Early advantage
Levan Kobiashvili gave Georgia an early lead, after he converted a penalty on 12 minutes. Ten minutes later, Maniatela was red-carded for his second bookable offence.

Lead doubled
Georgi Demetradze then doubled the lead on 33 minutes to complete a first half totally dominated by a revamped Georgian team, playing without nine of their top players, including the likes of Kakha Kaladze, Georgi Kinkladze, Shota Arveladze and captain Georgi Nemsadze.

Coach proves inspiration
Georgia's head coach Aleksandr Chivadze seemed to have found the right words to motivate his players, though, and the home team continued pouring forward after the half-time break.

Two-man advantage
Molefe was sent off for wild challenge on 58 minutes, giving Georgia a two-man advantage. Despite this, South Africa pulled one back as Delron Buckley struck on 68 minutes.

Win clinched
However, in the last ten minutes, Georgia got the better of the exhausted South Africans, as second-half substitute Rati Alexidze and Demetradze were on target to cap an impressive 4-1 victory.