Samtredia beat Shturmi 1-0 in the Erovnuli Liga 2 Regular Season on Saturday, 22 August 2026. The visitors took their place in the middle of the table after a game decided by a single moment. Shturmi had the better of possession but Samtredia made their chance count.
And here's the thing about watching from the stands rather than the screen — you notice when the tempo drops. The match settled into a pattern after the first ten minutes, when G. Gvishiani picked up the first booking. By then you could see Shturmi wanting to control the game through their midfield, pushing forward in waves. Samtredia were content to sit deep and wait.
The turning point came in the thirty-third minute. T. Odikadze stepped up and converted from the spot. To be fair, Shturmi had been under pressure since the thirtieth minute, when V. Khositashvili went to the referee. The penalty decision split the crowd, but the result was clear enough. Samtredia had their lead and then set about protecting it.
The statistics tell you what you already suspected. Shturmi registered 103 attacks against 91 for the visitors, but possession at 56 per cent to 44 per cent meant little when the final ball was missing. Three corners to seven suggests Samtredia were more direct in their approach. The hosts worked the channels but couldn't find the breakthrough.
Both managers made changes as the game wore on. Shturmi brought on G. Vekua and replaced G. Gvishiani in the seventy-fourth minute, looking for something different. Samtredia shifted T. Odikadze off the pitch in the sixty-sixth minute, a substitution that seemed more tactical than desperate. The match ended with a late change from Shturmi — L. Kemoklidze arrived in stoppage time for nothing more than a gesture.
Shturmi remain third with 23 points from 23 games, eight wins and nine draws. Samtredia sit seventh on 28 points, their eight victories offset by eleven defeats. The two sides had met on 26 July with Samtredia winning 2-1, and this result keeps the visitors ahead in their head-to-head record this season.