Georgia hold no more than extremely outside claims of qualifying for Euro 2012 after back-to-back defeats but they will want to finish the campaign on a high and should be backed to beat Latvia.
Having started Group F unbeaten in five matches, extending their sequence to 10 games without suffering defeat, Temuri Ketsbaia’s men would have been dreaming of Poland/Ukraine next summer.
Reversals in Israel and Croatia however, both by only a single goal, have undone much of the hard work and they now face an uphill task to overhaul those two nations and Greece in order to progress.
A superb home win over the Croats, in addition to valuable points in Athens and Riga against Friday’s opponents, indicate Georgia’s relative abilities and they should be backed confidently to regain the winning habit against a Latvian team a couple of notches below the quality of their hosts.
Just two wins in 11 matches, a 1-0 victory over hapless Malta and a 2-1 success against Bolivia in a friendly in Turkey, sees Latvia languishing with just four points to their name from six matches and their form on the road is poor.
Georgia will look to the German based duo of all-time leading cap winner Levan Kobiashvili and striker Alexander Lashvili for inspiration in Tblisi and one has to think that a single strike could well be enough.
Latvia have very little left to play for and were the visitors to fall behind early on then heads could well drop.
With 23 matches taking places across Europe this is certainly one of the least glamorous but I feel it represents the best betting opportunity of the lot and the 1.73 about a home win should be snapped up.
I have Georgia at no bigger than 1.50 and perhaps they are not quite out of the qualifying shake-up just yet.
3pts Back Georgia (vs. Latvia) @ 1.73 (various)