Portugal was already guaranteed first place in the group and in the last match the team’s coach, Roberto Martínez, was able to give the leading group a break. At the same time, he put Cristiano Ronaldo, 39, on the field from the first minutes to become the first player who managed to play 50 games in major national team tournaments.
The debut of the match was happy for the Georgian team. Portugal made a mistake in defense and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran towards the goal and fired an irresistible shot into the far corner! This result brought the Georgian team to the playoffs, but there was still a lot of time to play.
The Portuguese went to recover, but not everything went well in their attack. They were unable to break through the defense and spent some of their energy arguing with the referee, for which Ronaldo even received a yellow card.
And when the ball reached the Georgian goal, one of the best goalkeepers of the tournament, Giorgi Mamardashvili, acted confidently in the back line.
The break did not have much of an effect on the match. The Portuguese continued to push forward in the hope of recovering, while the Georgian team responded with counterattacks. In one of them, in the 55th minute, Willy Sagnol’s team won a penalty, which Georges Mikautadze converted.
The Portuguese coach soon made a series of changes, benching Ronaldo, who was not very happy with it. But nothing helped. That night it was not possible to break the monolith of the Georgia team’s defense.
Georgia won 2:0 and with four points advanced from third place to the playoffs.
And in a parallel match the Czech Republic and Türkiye fought for second place. In the 20th minute, the Czechs were left with ten men. Antonin Barak received two yellow cards and was sent off the field.
But the Turks could only stand out after the break. This was done by Hakan Calhanoglu. Soon the Czech Republic, thanks to the efforts of Tomas Soucek, restored equality. But the draw was not enough for them. And in the 84th minute, the Czechs seemed to score a second goal against their rival, but it was disallowed, and already in additional time Cenk Tosun surprised the rival for the second time, placing his team in second place in the group.
In the end, serious passions began to boil over on the pitch and the referee handed out yellow cards left and right. The Czechs sent off Tomas Hory. In total, during the match, the Czech team received not only two blows but seven warnings and the Turks received 11 mustard plasters.
