Buffon backs Georgia to stop Scots

Despite losing 2-0 against Italy, Azzurri 'keeper Gianluigi Buffon believes Georgia have the ability to do Italy a major favour by stopping Scotland's momentum at the top of Group B.

Italy trail Scotland by one point at the top of the section with France a further point adrift, and travel to Glasgow for their next qualifier on 17 November. Before that, Georgia play Alex McLeish's side in Tbilisi on Wednesday, and 29-year-old Buffon felt that - despite their defeat in Genoa on Saturday - Georgia might prove a handful for the Scots on home soil.

"I believe Georgia can put Scotland in trouble because they are a good team and have nothing to lose," he explained. "I think Scotland could slip up. We are at risk of not qualifying with 26 or 27 points in our group. Obviously it would be only our own fault for our bad start in the group but it would also be unfortunate because there are teams winning their groups with the same number of points."

Fabio Grosso, who scored the second goal of the night in Genoa, also believes Georgia have the skill to stop Scotland in their tracks. The Lyon defender said: "They play very good football, keeping possession very well, and we hope they can do us a favour against Scotland. It might be very difficult but we know we have the ability to win in Glasgow and qualify in any case."

Italy coach Roberto Donadoni is not expecting any favours in Tbilisi, however, and is focused on the trip to Glasgow. "We have a month to prepare," he said. "We still have to improve in several respects but I'm happy with the way we played tonight and I'm sure we can play well there. I was not interested in Scotland's result today, I was just interested in watching our performance and I think I got the responses I wanted."

Source: UEFA