In Georgia’s young history as an independent nation, this achievement will be a landmark. By winning their first Euro match against Portugal (2-0), Willy Sagnol’s selection secured a ticket to the round of 16 as the best third-placed team, behind the Seleção and Turkey. An exceptional performance for the nation ranked 74th in the FIFA rankings, the lowest total among the 24 countries that qualified for the competition. They will face Spain in the round of 16 on Sunday at 9pm. Until then, the nights may be short in Tbilisi.
As in the first two matches (1-3 against Turkey, 1-1 against the Czech Republic), the Georgians showed great virtues of courage in containing the attacks of the Portuguese, who had already secured first place at the kick-off. But the Crusaders could not limit themselves to their courage alone, as they showed their precision, especially in the counterattack. The pearl Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, in particular, gave an exceptional performance.
Scoring a goal in a victorious counterattack (the second), Napoli, pursued by Paris Saint-Germain, made the Portuguese defense dizzy with every touch of the ball, and showed, after two conservative first matches, that he was one of the best wingers ever. continent. He was very useful in recovering the ball, as referee Sandro Scharer saw an unexpected penalty awarded, after the video assistant referee called him for an individual challenge on Luka Luchushvili. The French-Georgian George Mikautadze executed the sentence (57), becoming the only scorer in the Euro with three goals.
One of the exciting teams in the first round.
This mad enthusiasm, embodied in particular by a little double bridge from Mikautadze at the end of the match (85th), makes Georgia one of the exciting teams in this Euro. A delicious breath of fresh air, after a generally gloomy third day of chicken. This achievement was also made possible by an extraordinary defensive base. At times, the Georgian defenders had been naive about the tournament up until then, but this time they contained the desires of the Portuguese, although timid, who were very satisfied and unable to pose any danger except with long shots.
And so the excellent goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who played heroically in the first two games, had a contrastingly quiet evening against the group's top team. Cristiano Ronaldo, who remained silent, left the game frustrated and warned against protesting (min. 28). But the Seleção have done the job before and will meet Slovenia in the round of 16 on July 1 at 9pm. Turkey are second in the group after the Czech Republic resisted despite the heatwave (2-1), and will play Austria in the next round on July 2 at 6pm. Georgia will face Spain, who crushed them (1-7) ten months ago. But the confidence will be very different.
