Georgia vs Cyprus

Mikheil Meskhi Stadium is the venue as Georgia and Cyprus lock horns in a bottom-half UEFA European Championship 2024 Group A six-pointer.

Georgia’s hopes of reaching their first-ever European Championship finals as an independent nation are hanging by a thread, as they need a win here, coupled with a draw between Spain and Norway. Since beating Cyprus 2-1 in June, their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign has descended into disarray. Willy Sagnol’s men have lost three consecutive games in Group A, including an embarrassing 7-1 defeat to Spain in their most recent competitive home outing. But the ‘Crusaders’ will still take the field in high spirits after the nation’s biggest goal-margin victory in an 8-0 friendly triumph over Thailand in the build-up to this game. That should inspire their bid to register their first home qualification win of the cycle (D1, L1) against a side they failed to beat in their only previous competitive H2H as host (1-1).

On the other hand, Cyprus’ hopes of qualifying for next summer’s tournament are long dead as after losing all six qualifying games via a combined score of 21-2, they commence this round nailed to the bottom of the group. After losing both Euro 2024 qualifiers in September via at least a three-goal margin and without scoring, the Cypriots continued in the same trend this month, succumbing to a dreadful 4-0 home defeat to Norway a few days ago. With nothing but pride left to play for, the visitors will hope to avoid their first pointless Euros qualifying campaign since 1992. But that’s easier said than done, considering they’ve lost a staggering 86 of the 120 Euro qualifying games they’ve played to date (W19, D15).