BBC Sounds

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If you can't watch the game, we've also got you covered on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Foyle.

John O'Neill and Michael McNamee are on commentary duty, while Dean Shiels joins Joel Taggart in studio.

You can listen from 16:30 BST on BBC Radio Foyle, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport app.

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Look at it. Study it. Drink it in.

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Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill believes the near-empty stadium in tonight'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.

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.

Jonathan Bradley
BBC Sport NI senior journalist in Tbilisi

Image source, Getty Images

While there was naturally disappointment after that loss to Italy in March, there has long been a sense that this group's best chance of major tournament qualification lies in the years ahead.

Of the starting XI that featured in Bergamo, only Hull City's 31-year-old defender Paddy McNair is older than 26.

The average age of the 28-man squad named last week was just 24-years-old with a quartet of teenagers - Ceadach O'Neill, Kieran Morrison, Braiden Graham and Tom Atcheson - giving the panel an even more youthful look.

In addition to McNair, the only two other players in the squad older than 30 are central striking options Dion Charles, 30, and Josh Magennis, 36.

O'Neill, however, is expected to stick with the 21-year-old Jamie Donley up top as he continues to build for the qualification campaigns ahead.

The Tottenham Hotspur player has scored twice in 10 caps and started the past five games for Northern Ireland, but he endured a difficult 2025-26 season at club level on loan at Stoke City and Oxford United.

Despite featuring for Spurs during pre-season, he will spend this year with Luton Town, back on loan in League One where he impressed for Leyton Orient in 2024-25.

"What happened with Jamie last year was not really of Jamie's doing," said O'Neill.

"The game time at Stoke was, I think, unfair on the player, to be honest. The second loan he gets injured in his first game but the games he did play, he did well.

"I think the thing for Jamie is just to play regularly. I think he's got all the attributes of a top, young player. He's still a Tottenham player on a long-term contract and I think he's gone to a good club (in Luton)."

If Shea Charles is feeling a weight of expectation from being the most expensive Northern Ireland footballer ever his demeanour does not betray it.

Interviewed by BBC Sport NI before the forthcoming four-game Nations League bonanza, the Fulham midfielder cuts a laid-back but determined figure who is keen to play a key part in helping a young Northern Ireland side continue to build on recent progress.

Charles' record-breaking £30m move from Championship side Southampton to the Cottagers in the summer gave him the opportunity to move up a division and ply his trade in the Premier League.

He describes becoming NI's most expensive footballer as "quite crazy".

"I think I was like second or third before that. But to be number one, it's really cool. Just to be in the Premier League and just being able to play my football is amazing," he told BBC Sport NI.

"For me, I don't really think about it [the price tag] too much, and you see what a lot of people are going for these days, it's kind of crazy.

"I've just got really good people around me, living with my younger brother and my older brother, mum and dad. I've got a really good friendship group that keep me grounded."

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland have made three changes from the side which lost to World Cup semi-finalists France in June.

Tom Atcheson, Dan Ballard and Ethan Galbraith come into the starting team in Tbilisi.

Ruairi McConville, Brodie Spencer and the injured Ali McCann drop out of the starting team.

Michael O'Neill named an extended squad for the quadruple header and Eoin Toal, Braiden Graham, Dion Charles and Michael Forbes are the players to miss out on the matchday 23 today.

As expected, PSG's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will wear the armband for the hosts, and Liverpool's Giorgi Mamardashvili is between the posts.

Northern Ireland: P Charles, Hume (capt), Atcheson, Ballard, Brown, Devenny, S Charles, Kelly, Galbraith, Price, Donley.

Subs: Hazard. Peacock-Farrell, Devlin, Thompson, Marshall, O'Neill, Smyth, Morrison, McConville, McNair, Spencer, Magennis.

Georgia: Mamardashvili, Kakabadze, Dvali, Goglihidze, Lochoshvili, Kockhorashvili, Mekvabishvili, Kharebashvili, Kvernadze, Mikautdze, Kvaratskhelia (capt).

Subs: Kereselidze, Gugesjashvili, Kiteishvili, Davitashvili, Chakvetadze, Zivizivadze, Beriashvili, Mamageishvili, Egoyan, Tsitaishvili, Gagua, Tabidze.

Northern Ireland are back in League B and they have a tricky start in Georgia?

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Northern Ireland striker Josh Magennis discusses how he is preparing for life when the time comes to hang up his boots.

Watch full interview below or on the BBC Northern Ireland YouTube channel, external

Image source, BBC Sport

Here's what lies ahead for Michael O'Neill's side.

Jonathan Bradley
BBC Sport NI senior journalist at Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena

Apparently Tbilisi takes its name from the Old Georgian for place of warmth...it's been living up to it's name for Northern Ireland's visit.

The temperate was in the high 20s when Michael O'Neill's team were training here yesterday. It's a little cooler this evening for what is an 20:00 kick-off local time.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, Getty

Hi everyone!

We've some Friday evening football for you as Northern Ireland start their Nations League campaign in Georgia.

It's the first of four games in the space of 11 days for Michael O'Neill's side as they return to League B.

Kick off is about an hour away and you can watch the game on BBC Two NI and listen on BBC Sounds.

We'll have have all the build-up and updates here too.

Thanks for joining us!