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

Israel will journey to Tbilisi on Thursday to tackle Georgia in a world 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 dropping 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 dwelling loss to Turkey and a 3-0 overcome Bulgaria, Willy Sagnol‘s group failed to select up one other level of their last 4 makes an attempt, firstly dropping 2-0 and 4-1 in journeys to Spain and Turkey respectively.

A 4-0 thrashing at dwelling to Spain then adopted in mid-November, earlier than the Jvarosnebi took on Bulgaria within the last 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 dealing with a recent 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 start out on the entrance foot and get again to successful methods on Thursday.

© Iconsport / Ipp

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

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 have 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 dwelling 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 return out on high in Thursday’s pleasant to set the tone for the yr.

Georgia kind (all competitions):

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Israel kind (all competitions):

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Team News

© Iconsport / Aflo

Georgia have a robust squad accessible for his or her March friendlies, together with the return of key attacker Georges Mikautadze, who missed their final two World Cup qualifiers by means of damage 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 means of accidents.

Israel are with out key attacker Manor Solomon, who has been dominated out of current Serie A motion with Fiorentina by means of damage.

In his absence, a lot of the duty going ahead could 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 could be part of Eliel Peretz within the engine room.

Georgia attainable beginning lineup:

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

Israel attainable 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 count on 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 dwelling soil in consequence.

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