Georgia U21 vs Belgium U21 Predictions & Match Preview

Soccer Euro Under 21 Championship - Group Stage

⚽ 24 June 2023 - 16:00 GMT +0

Tournament co-hosts Georgia made a sensational start to their UEFA Under-21 European Championships by beating Portugal, the runners-up in two of the last four editions of this competition. Their 2-0 win on Thursday meant Ramaz Svanadze’s young side has now won each of their last three matches - all without conceding a single goal.

The scoreline perhaps didn’t tell the game’s full story, with their opponents, who finished the game with ten men, hitting 17 attempts to Georgia’s four. The bulk of those efforts came in the second half as Portugal chased the game, but the Georgia players would have taken confidence in how they saw the contest out and of interestingly, that game was the fourth of their last five Euro U21 matches in which they’d opened their scoring before the break.

In Group A’s other clash, Belgium and the Netherlands played out a more drab affair (0-0) which was labelled a “fair result” by Young Devils and AC Milan forward Charles De Ketelaere afterwards. It was at least a point on the board for Belgium, who have historically struggled in this tournament, only qualifying for two of the last ten Euro U21 championships and exiting the 2019 edition in the group stage with three losses to their name.

However, there’s been a greater belief instilled in this latest group by manager Jacky Mathijssen and he helped steer his team to six wins and two draws during qualifying. That makes up part of a wider sequence in which Belgium have lost just one of their last 14 matches (W8, D5), so they certainly ought to be confident of picking up three points here.

📋 Players to watch: Georgia’s Georgiy Tsitaishvili is a man in form, setting up both goals against Portugal and netting in last week’s friendly against Cyprus. He’ll face off against Lois Openda who has yet to score for Belgium in his two games so far this month, but he did bag an impressive 21 Ligue 1 goals for Lens this past season.

⚡ Hot stat: Portugal’s red card in their group opener meant three of Georgia’s last six games have seen one side finish with ten men.