Georgia to play for crisis-hit country says official

By Phil Cadden

SWANSEA (Reuters) - Georgia will take a special pride in playing Wales on Wednesday in a friendly that will be followed closely by the crisis-hit country, according to the Black Sea state's top soccer official.

Conflict between Georgia and Russia erupted when Georgia tried to reimpose control over the breakaway South Ossetia province on August 7-8. Russia responded with a massive counter-attack that overwhelmed Georgian forces.

"We're really proud to represent our country in a difficult situation tomorrow and it will be a special and symbolic game," Georgian football federation president Nodar Akhalkatsi told reporters on Tuesday.

"Nobody can break our will for independence. We are alive and Russia will not stop us. The whole of Georgia will look to us and how we perform."

Georgia squad members had to make a 16-hour trip to the Azerbaijan capital Baku to obtain visas before flying to Britain, though some players were unable to make the journey.

"Our preparations have been affected a lot," Akhalkatsi said. "All our travel plans were thrown into chaos but we managed to get to Baku and obtain the visas to travel.

"We then had to rearrange our travel schedule because the airport was closed and there were no international flights. I'm sure someone in Russia thought they would break us down and we wouldn't travel to Wales -- but we made it.

"Of course, we are missing a lot of players and not because of injury. We have players who play in Russia and they could not get to Baku for their visas so they will not play."