Bulgaria and Georgia will wrap up their World Cup qualifying campaigns when the pair square off in Sofia on Tuesday night.
The hosts have endured a nightmare time of it in Group E, coming away empty-handed from each of their opening five assignments.
The Lions’ latest defeat came away at Turkey on Saturday as they succumbed to a 2-0 loss in Bursa.
Consequently, Aleksandar Dimitrov's side look destined to collect the Group E wooden spoon, irrespective of the outcome of their game with Georgia this midweek.
After causing a splash at Euro 2024 last summer, the Crusaders have been unable to carry that momentum into the current World Cup qualifying campaign, losing four of their five Group E fixtures to date, the most recent of which was a 4-0 defeat at home to Spain on Saturday.
In fact. Georgia’s solitary victory came against Bulgaria back on matchday two, and they will now look to repeat the trick in this week's return match in Sofia
How the bookies view it: More misery for Bulgaria
As mentioned, Bulgaria have lost each of their five Group E games to date, and the bookies' odds suggest that trend will continue here, with a Georgia win priced up at 8/15 on BOYLE Sports.
The hosts are as big as 9/2 on BOYLE Sports to claim what would be a morale-boosting victory while the draw is an unfancied 14/5 with the same firm.
Head to head: Crusaders out to claim back-to-back wins
Georgia will be looking to do the double against Bulgaria after running out 3-0 winners in September’s reverse fixture. The same scoreline on Tuesday night is trading at 11/1 on BOYLE Sports.
Players to watch: Kvaratskhelia is key
It goes without saying that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is Georgia’s talismanic figure. The PSG forward is an appealing anytime goalscorer option here at 21/20 on Bet365.
Ilia Gruev is expected to be patrolling the midfield battleground for Bulgaria on Tuesday night. The Leeds midfielder is 11/4 on Bet365 to pick up a booking during this contest.
Predicted line-ups
Bulgaria have not reported any fresh injury issues following Saturday’s 2-0 loss in Turkey.
Following Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to Spain, Georgia boss Willy Sagnol could rotate his resources here for what is essentially a dead rubber.
Bulgaria: Mitov; Popov, Chernev, Bozhinov, Georgiev; Shopov, Krastev, Gruev; Petkov, Despodov, Minchev
Georgia: Mamardashvili; Kakabadze, Kashia, Goglichidze, Gocholeishvili; Kiteishvili, Mekvabishvili, Kochorashvili; Zivzivadze, Kvilitaia, Kvaratskhelia
Anything else catch the eye?
Backing Georgia to win alongside under 4.5 goals will boost the odds about an away success to a much more enticing 10/11 on BOYLE Sports.
This bet would have paid out in four of Bulgaria’s five Group E defeats – one of which was against Georgia.
The 7/4 on offer with BOYLE Sports for Georgia to win by a scoreline of either 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 also looks worthy of interest.
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