Ireland can expect to meet a significantly improved Georgia from the side that ceded six points to Martin O’Neill’s men in the last qualifying campaign, says Eamon Dunphy.
The Boys in Green have a 100% winning record in seven ties against Thursday's visitors but it took late goals in both fixtures against Georgia for Ireland to gain maximum points on the road to France.
Since that, Georgia have installed a new manager, former Slovakia boss Vladamir Weiss, and beaten Spain in a friendly in Getafe.
Although they lost to Austria in their Group D opener, Dunphy told 2fm’s Game On that Ireland, missing a raft of players through injury, can’t afford to take anything for granted.
“They’ve a new coach, they are a much better team than the one we played last time when we found it really hard work,” he said.
“They beat Scotland and that’s how, really, we got to the European Championships. This is an extremely tough game and we need our best players on the pitch.
“They beat Spain in a pre-Euro friendly and they were also very unlucky to lose 2-1 to Austria in the first qualifying game.
“Harry Arter stayed at home in Bournemouth for a scan, that doesn’t sound very promising. This will be a very difficult match.
“We only beat them 1-0 in the Aviva the last time and it seems from the results that they’ve improved, and improved significantly.”
Ireland began their campaign with a 2-2 draw in Serbia.
