European Qualifiers: Georgia cruise to 3-0 win away to Gibraltar in Group D

Georgia claimed their first points of the European qualifying campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win in Gibraltar.

Goals from Nikoloz Gelashvili, Tornike Okriashvili and Jaba Kankava were enough to get the visitors' Group D challenge up and running, while Gibraltar are still awaiting their opening point and goal in what is their maiden qualifying competition.

Both teams had come into the match without a win so far in qualifying. Gibraltar had conceded 14 goals in defeats to Poland and the Republic of Ireland, while Georgia were narrowly beaten by the Irish last month and again in Scotland at the weekend.

And it was the Georgians who struck after nine minutes when Giorgi Chanturia played a tidy ball through to Gelashvili, who tucked his shot into the bottom-left corner.

Liam Walker was denied an equaliser - and Gibraltar's first competitive goal ever - eight minutes later when his superb strike from 20 yards was tipped around a post by Giorgi Loria.

The visitors then doubled their lead after 20 minutes through Okriashvili, who found himself on the end of a defence-splitting pass from Zhano Ananidze before supplying the finish with his right foot.

Georgia could have had another six minutes later but Chanturia's drive struck an upright, while Loria again came to the rescue at the other end six minutes after the interval with another good save to keep out Lee Casciaro.

It was Kankava who eventually put the match to bed after 69 minutes, with the Dnipro midfielder sweeping home Solomon Kvirkvelia's pass which was again threaded through the Gibraltar backline with little resistance.