Georgia vs Greece

Greece take a trip to the Batumi Stadium to take on Georgia in a must-win World Cup qualification Group B showdown.

Georgia have never managed to qualify for the World Cup finals since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and they are on course of maintaining that trend. Winless in their first five World Cup qualification Group B fixtures (D1, L4), the Georgians are nailed to the bottom of the section without a glimmer of hope of breaking into the top two. Despite losing four of their five group matches, the hosts can at least find some courage in succumbing to a narrow one-goal difference on three of those occasions. However, Georgia’s disastrous Group B record has extended their winless streak in the World Cup qualifying games to 22 (D8, L14), last winning such fixture in September 2012. By extension, they’ve won just one of their previous 34 World Cup qualifying matches (D13, L23).

In the meantime, Greece’s pursuit of their first World Cup finals appearance since 2014 has got some legs following a hard-earned 2-1 home win over Sweden last time out. That victory snapped the visitors’ three-match winless start to this World Cup qualifying campaign (D3), with each game in that sequence yielding the identical 1-1 scoreline. Trailing second-placed Sweden by three points, the ‘Ethniki’ can ill-afford a slip-up against a side they’ve not lost to in any of their seven competitive H2Hs (W5, D2). Interestingly, the Greeks have won each of their three World Cup/European Championship qualifying visits to Georgia despite failing to keep a clean sheet each time. Topically, John van’t Schip’s men have conceded at least once in all five matches on foreign turf this calendar year.