Georgia vs Belarus 09/10/20

09 October 2020

Two nations with ambitions of a first-ever qualification for the EURO will lock horns at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena in Path D’s playoff semi-final as Georgia (FIFA rank: #89) take on Belarus (#87).

The ‘Crusaders’ endured an utterly underwhelming qualifying Group D campaign, failing to pick up three points in all but two of their meetings with Gibraltar (W2, D2, L4). A genuine lack of firepower in the attacking third has seen Vladimir Weiss’s men draw a blank in five of eight qualifying matches. It will be their fourth H2H clash against Belarus, with Georgia accruing a win, a draw, and a loss from the previous three meetings, two of which featured under 2.5 goals. The hosts have overseen some success versus an opponent ranked within ten places of them during their UEFA Nations League campaign (W6, D2) and have also kept a clean sheet in eight of their previous 11 outings on home turf (W7, D3, L1).

Meanwhile, the visitors have lost six of eight EURO qualifying games heading into this fixture (W1, D1, L6). Notably, none of Belarus’ previous ten away matches have ended in a draw (W5, L5), with each seeing the winner on the day open the scoring. What’s more, seven of those ten encounters have seen the losing side fail to get on the scoresheet. Going back to October 2015, the ‘White Wings’ have picked up barely one win in three road clashes against UEFA opposition of a similar caliber (W1, D1, L1). Also, a lack of goals has been tormenting Belarus lately, as they’ve failed to score in three of their last five road trips.