Alvin Martin - Dinamo Tbilisi was a completely different level to anyone we'd ever met
Magazine THE GUARDIAN has done an interview with a well known English football player - Alvin Martin. In this interview, English player was asked about Dinamo Tbilisi...
Of course, you qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup and then played against Dinamo Tbilisi. Was that the most difficult game you've ever had?
Yeah. I think we played them at a stage where we hadn't lost at Upton Park for 10 months so we were pretty formidable at home. All of a sudden, we were playing this Georgian side who had a mid-season break and hadn't played any football for six weeks. I think we went in there thinking these are there for the taking. They had players like David Kipiani in midfield and Aleksandr Chivadze, who was the captain. Ramaz Shengelia was another one. After about 20 minutes we thought, "Whoa, whoa, what's going on here?" They just totally outplayed us and gave us a footballing lesson. We lost it 4-1. We were sitting in the back afterwards. There were about eight or nine of us in there and none of us really spoke. We just sat shocked and numb because we couldn't believe what had happened to us. There was a degree of naivety and complacency, which we proved when we won 1-0 in the return leg. We were an emerging side but they were a completely different level to anyone we'd ever met.
worldsport.ge 04.01.2012