Two sides still without a single appearance at a major tournament square off in Path C of the Euro 2024 qualifying playoffs on Thursday, as Georgia welcome Luxembourg to Tbilisi in their semi-final.
A showdown with Greece or Kazakhstan is on offer for the winner in next Tuesday's final, where the prize will be a slot in Group F with Portugal, Turkey and the Czech Republic.
Match preview
Now making frequent waves on the international scene under the tutelage of former France defender Willy Sagnol, Georgia earned a pair of victories over Cyprus in their Euro 2024 qualifying Group A campaign, while also taking points off of Norway and Scotland at home.
However, both aforementioned nations also strode to wins over Sagnol's men on their own patch, while Spain subjected the Crusaders to a pair of humbling defeats - including a 7-1 demolition job - to consign Thursday's hosts to a fourth-placed finish in the section.
Nevertheless, courtesy of their magnificent performance in the 2022-23 Nations League - where they clinched 16 points from 18 to shoot up to League B - Georgia punched their ticket to the Euro 2024 playoffs, where they have some wrongs to right from the 2020 edition.
Indeed, the Crusaders scraped past Belarus 1-0 in their playoff semi-final that year to set up an intriguing final with North Macedonia, but Goran Pandev's winner left Georgia crestfallen and still waiting for their major tournament baptism as an independent nation.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Sagnol's men host Luxembourg having only been beaten in one of their last 11 home matches in all tournaments - the seven-goal slaughter at the hands of Spain - since when they have amassed a sensational 14 goals from three games against Thailand, Scotland and Cyprus.
Another team to emerge from the doldrums in recent years, Luxembourg were Portugal and Slovakia's closest challengers for a top-two finish in qualifying Group J - which also comprised Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Liechtenstein - and the Red Lions emerged with an eye-catching total of 17 points.
Alongside doing the double over both Bosnia and Liechtenstein, Luxembourg trounced Iceland 3-1 at home to win 50% of their games in Group J - thereby finishing third with just a five-point deficit to Slovakia in second place - although they were also embarrassed 9-0 and 6-0 against perfect group leaders Portugal.
Those two demoralising defeats have now paled into insignificance for Luc Holtz's side, though, as the Red Lions sneaked into the playoffs thanks to their performance in League C of the Nations League, and 17 points in qualifying was unsurprisingly their highest total of all time.
Similarly to hosts Georgia, Luxembourg are also yet to make their first appearance at a World Cup or European Championships, but the visitors - currently ranked 85th on the globe - head to Tbilisi having only lost one of their last eight away games across the Nations League and Euro 2024 qualifying.
The Red Lions also came up trumps in their most recent encounter with Georgia, prevailing 1-0 in a 2018 friendly thanks to an Aurelien Joachim strike, prior to which the Crusaders had won two and drawn one of their previous three exhibition battles.
Team News
Georgia's rise to prominence has come thanks in no small part to Napoli wing wizard Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but on account of being booked three times in the group stage, the 23-year-old will miss Thursday's semi-final through suspension in a hammer blow to the hosts' chances of advancing.
With Kvaratskhelia watching on helplessly, the goalscoring burden will fall onto the shoulders of Metz attacker Georges Mikautadze, who has contributed to eight goals in 12 Ligue 1 games - five of his own and three assists - since returning to Les Grenats on loan from Ajax in January.
The hosts' most experienced performers - 110-cap skipper Guram Kashia and 100-cap midfielder Jaba Kankava - both ply their trade at Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia, and the former will line up in Sagnol's five-man defensive wall.
Georgia are not the only ones who must work around the suspension of an integral attacker this week, as Luxembourg striker Danel Sinani is also banned by virtue of his fifth-minute red card in his side's 1-0 win over Liechtenstein in November.
However, the visitors can still call upon the services of their all-time leading men's scorer Gerson Rodrigues, who struck five goals in Group J to move onto the 20-mark for his nation, surpassing previous top scorer Leon Mart (16) in the process.
Skipper Laurent Jans brought up 100 appearances for the Red Lions in their beating of Liechtenstein three months ago, meanwhile, and just three more games will see the defender become Luxembourg's most-capped men's player of all time.
Georgia possible starting lineup:
Mamardashvili; Kakabadze, Kashia, Kvirkvelia, Lochoshvili, Gocholeishvili; Kvekveskiri, Kankava; Chakvetadze; Mikautadze, Kvilitaia
Luxembourg possible starting lineup:
Moris; Korac, Chanot, M. Martins; Jans, C. Martins, Barreiro, Pinto; S. Thill; Borges Sanches, Rodrigues
We say: Georgia 1-1 Luxembourg (a.e.t. - Georgia to win on penalties)
With both managers forced to cope without one of their key offensive players for the semi-final, an extremely tight affair should be in store in Tbilisi, where Georgia may have previously been considered the favourites had Kvaratskhelia been available.
A defensively-compact Luxembourg can therefore frustrate their visitors for 120 minutes, but when it comes to the dreaded spot kicks, home advantage may just do the trick for Sagnol's side as they prolong their dreams of Euros qualification while dashing Luxembourg's.
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