Preview: Georgia vs Israel – prediction, staff information, lineups

Israel will journey to Tbilisi on Thursday to tackle Georgia in a global pleasant.

The two nations each head into motion for the primary time this yr after unsuccessful World Cup Qualifying bids.

Match preview

Georgia return to worldwide motion for the primary time in over 4 months on Thursday aiming to finish a four-game shedding run that ended their 2025.

That put an finish to their World Cup qualifying bid, after the Jvarosnebi set their sights on a second straight main worldwide match following their look and development to the spherical of 16 of Euro 2024.

After kicking off with a slender residence loss to Turkey and a 3-0 overcome Bulgaria, Willy Sagnol‘s staff failed to choose up one other level of their closing 4 makes an attempt, firstly shedding 2-0 and 4-1 in journeys to Spain and Turkey respectively.

A 4-0 thrashing at residence to Spain then adopted in mid-November, earlier than the Jvarosnebi took on Bulgaria within the closing spherical of video games with their destiny already sealed and left empty-handed, falling 2-0 all the way down to targets from Georgi Rusev and Filip Krastev and failing to discover a leveller after Luka Lochoshvili halved the deficit late on.

Now going through a contemporary begin within the new yr with a pair of March friendlies and the start of the UEFA Nations League in September, Georgia will bid to begin on the entrance foot and get again to successful methods on Thursday.

© Iconsport / Ipp

Their guests, in the meantime, additionally purpose to begin 2026 with a victory earlier than turning their focus to the Nations League after the summer time.

Israel’s bid to qualify for this yr’s World Cup additionally ended efficiently in 2025, regardless of them making a robust declare within the early rounds of group fixtures.

The Skyblue and Whites made a robust begin, managing a pair of wins over Estonia and a 4-0 overcome Moldova of their first 4 outings, earlier than occurring to lose twice by the hands of Italy and as soon as in a visit to Norway, the place they had been thrashed 5-0.

Having seen any hopes of advancing in European qualification ended by these consecutive losses, Ran Ben Shimon‘s males would end the marketing campaign at residence to Moldova mid-November, on the again of a pleasant draw with Lithuania, and bowed out with a 4-1 win as Dor Turgeman had them 1-0 up, Roy Revivo and Eliel Peretz put them 3-1 forward earlier than a late Vladyslav Baboglo personal aim put the sport out of sight.

With positives to take from that qualifying bid which resulted in a third-placed end, Israel will now bid to come back out on high in Thursday’s pleasant to set the tone for the yr.

Georgia type (all competitions):

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Israel type (all competitions):

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Team News

© Iconsport / Aflo

Georgia have a robust squad out there for his or her March friendlies, together with the return of key attacker Georges Mikautadze, who missed their final two World Cup qualifiers by way of harm having netted 21 worldwide targets.

He will rejoin talisman and Paris Saint-Germain star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who has netted 20 targets for his nation and boasts seven targets and 4 assists in 11 Champions League video games this time period.

Sporting Lisbon midfielder Giorgi Kochorashvili and skilled defender Otar Kakabadze are notable absences from the squad by way of accidents.

Israel are with out key attacker Manor Solomon, who has been dominated out of latest Serie A motion with Fiorentina by way of harm.

In his absence, a lot of the accountability going ahead might once more fall on Ajax’s Oskar Gloukh and New England Revolution’s Turgeman, who scored his second worldwide aim of their final sport in opposition to Moldova in November.

Elsewhere, Dor Peretz, who boasts 54 caps and 9 worldwide targets, will proceed to lend help in assault, whereas Gabi Kanichowsky might be a part of Eliel Peretz within the engine room.

Georgia doable beginning lineup:

Mamardashvili; Gocholeishvili, Kashia, Lochoshvili, Azarovi; Tsitaishvili, Chakvetadze, Kiteishvili; Kvatarskhelia, Mikautadze, Davitashvili

Israel doable beginning lineup:

Glazer; Dasa, Lemkin, Blorian, Revivo; Turiel, Kanichowsky, E Peretz, D Peretz; Gloukh, Turgeman

We say: Georgia 2-1 Israel

With two nations having trigger for optimism round their present teams heading into 2026, we anticipate a hard-fought pleasant in Tbilisi on Thursday.

Despite Israel having the higher World Cup Qualifying marketing campaign, we see extra high quality within the Georgia ranks at current and provides them the slight edge on residence soil consequently.

For knowledge evaluation of the most probably outcomes, scorelines and extra for this match please click here.