Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill believes the near-empty stadium in Friday’s Nations League game will impact hosts Georgia more than his own side.
The game will be played behind closed doors after the Georgian FA were hit with sanctions after multiple breaches of Uefa regulations and crowd disorder from a game against Armenia last year.
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Around 60 Northern Ireland fans will be in attendance, as well as a number of local school children who have been allowed to enter the ground.
“I’s not something that we focused on. We’ll train tonight in the stadium,” O’Neill told BBC Sport NI.
“It’s a great stadium and unfortunately it will be empty, but I think it’s more difficult for the home team, if I’m honest.”
The game at the Boris Paichadze National Stadium in Tbilisi, which usually has a capacity of 55,000, is Northern Ireland’s first game back in League B and they will also face Hungary and Ukraine.
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The game will kick off at 17:00 BST with Georgia three hours ahead of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland’s squad and players have stated in the BST time zone to try help a smooth transition in the quadruple header.
While O’Neill said Georgia have “many good players”, he admitted that Paris St-Germain winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was nominated for the Ballon d’Or after a scintillating season, is their star player and a danger man.
O’Neill said he thought the 25-year-old was the best player in PSG’s run to the Champions League last year and said he would require some some “special attention”.
“It’s the same when you play against any world-class player in any country that you have to be aware that he can win the game in a moment, that he can create so much and he can lift his team as well.
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“That’s a challenge for us. We played France in June against [Kylian] Mbappe or [Michael] Olise or players of that ilk as well, so we have experience of playing against players of this level and I think it’s how we deal with that as a team.”
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