Shurtani and Merani Martvili met in the Georgian second tier on Saturday, with the hosts taking a 2:1 win in the Regular Season round 20 clash on 8 August. The result keeps Shurtani well clear at third while Merani remain in sixth after twenty rounds of fixtures.
The opening moment came in the thirty-fifth minute when N. Kharabadze turned ball over to give Shurtani the lead, and by then Merani were already showing signs of nervousness. The defender picked up a yellow card in the forty-first minute, a moment that shifted the balance toward the home side.
Shurtani made a change at the interval with D. Khelaia coming on in the forty-sixth minute, while Merani responded with I. Lekvtadze in the sixty-first. The game tightened after that, with yellow cards flying: N. Talakhadze and N. Chumburidze both went off the pitch in the seventieth minute, followed by D. Kardava a minute later.
Merani pulled level late on when G. Omarashvili headed home in the eighty-sixth minute, but Shurtani had already put the game to bed early enough to survive the scare. L. Tsulaia sealed it in stoppage time, firing past the keeper in the ninety-first minute after a run that left the visitors chasing shadows.
And here's the thing about the numbers: Merani registered more attacks with 148 to Shurtani's 120, yet the visitors took only one corner compared to four for the hosts. Possession was almost even at 51 per cent to 49, but the difference came in efficiency — three yellow cards each, zero reds, and a result that tells you everything.
Shurtani move up to thirty-six points, a gap of five over Merani who sit on thirty-one after twenty-four matches each. The hosts have won nine, drawn nine and lost six, while Merani's record reads eight wins, seven draws and nine defeats — and the line has barely moved for either side this season.