The Georgian national team is in the Euro 2024 playoffs! Sensational success for a debutant at the European Championship. In the third round, the Georgians defeated the Portuguese and finished in third place in the group.
Roberto Martínez changed almost all the starters after the Portuguese national team solved the problem of reaching the playoffs from the first place, but Cristiano Ronaldo still came out in the starting eleven. Before the start of the match, Cristiano hugged Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and seemed to convey to her his success as a scorer. Already in the second minute, the former Rubin and Lokomotiv player scored his first goal at Euro 2024! The Georgians’ scoring attack began with the arrival of Antonio Silva, who made a pass to Georges Mikautadze in his own half. Georges and Khvicha went on the counterattack, Kvaratskhelia received a pass from his teammate and decided the episode with two touches: he sent the low ball into the far corner.
At that time, the Georgia team participated in the playoffs according to the classification! Then, Willy Sagnol’s team settled on a low defense and the Portuguese had the ball 72% of the time. The Georgians, using their 5-3-2 formation, reliably covered the center. The Portuguese team looked for space on the flanks and “traced” an arc, moving the ball from one flank to the other through the full-backs and the outside centre-backs. In this situation, the question was whether the three center backs of the Georgian team, who covered a very long distance in spurts, could withstand such intensity.
Georgia – Portugal
Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Ronaldo dealt the first blow for the Portuguese team midway through the first half: he impressively struck under the crossbar from 30 meters. He was far from the goal, but even the ball flying through the center proved so difficult that Giorgi Mamardashvili only saved it for a corner. With every minute, it became more and more difficult for the Georgian team to defend themselves. Cristiano, as always, was the center of attention. He could have scored with his head after another free kick, but poor Antonio Silva prevented him: he ran towards the ball first and shot very poorly. Ronaldo was very unhappy. Then the Portuguese captain received a yellow card, demanding a penalty. Cristiano claimed, rightly, that they grabbed his shirt during the set piece. But the referee and his VAR assistants decided that the fall did not constitute a foul. The usual fight for a corner.
The Georgian team lost the ball a lot, even in its own half, and for a long time forgot about counterplay. Only closer to half-time there were a couple of dangerous attacks involving Kvaratskhelia. In the first half, the Georgians lost in shots (3:11), but they fought back and maintained the slightest advantage. In another dangerous moment, Ronaldo’s shot was blocked in the fall by Georgiy Gvelesiani, who plays in the Iranian championship.
After the break, the Portuguese team attacked Mamardashvili’s goal with all their might. The first winners of Group F didn’t really want to give in. In the 47th minute, after a corner kick, Ronaldo was left alone in a lethal position and received the ball that bounced off a defender. I thought that now it was almost certain that Cristiano would score. But defender Lasha Dvali, who had lost his balance and was already lying on the ground, became “almost certainly” “hard.” The Cypriot APOEL player closed the goal as best he could and Cristiano hit him on the shoulder. What a disappointment the Portuguese star was!
Georgian national team
Photo: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
However, the Georgian team did not allow itself to be crushed. In the second half, Sagnol’s team managed to launch better counterattacks. And the next one ended with a foul in the Portuguese area on Luka Lochoshvili. And who committed the foul: Antonio Silva! After this match, the young Benfica defender will be able to receive the title of honorary citizen of Tbilisi. The referee did not see the infringement, but the VAR was not asleep. The Georgians’ and the entire tournament’s top scorer, Mikautadze, converted the penalty with a very confident shot into the bottom right corner. This is his third goal in Euro 2024.
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The next good news for the Georgian team was the replacement of Ronaldo, who left the field after an hour of play. Most likely, this was an initially planned move to not overload the 39-year-old forward before the playoffs. Thus, Cristiano finished the group stage without goals. His statistics in the match with Georgia: 17 touches of the ball (three in another’s area), three shots, including one on goal, 64% accurate passes, one pass under attack, 0 dribbles and battles won.
Without Ronaldo and the freshmen Gonçalo Ramos and Diogo Jota, the Portuguese continued to crash into the opponent’s powerful defensive wall. All the players of the Georgian national team were encouraged and goalkeeper Mamardashvili was in this special state from the first day of Euro 2024. Martínez’s team could not even shoot on goal. The Georgians were stronger, first of all, psychologically. In the end they forced the favorite to run after the ball.
If the Georgian team had been a little luckier, they would have won big. The brilliant striker Mikautadze, born and raised in France, created a scoring opportunity with a beautiful dribble, proving that he can beat Kvaratskhelia no worse than Kvaratskhelia. But the partner didn’t get it right. In terms of shots, the Georgians finished noticeably lower – 7:22 (from the penalty area – 7:13, on goal – 3:5). In added time, Jota wasted a sure scoring chance and everything became clear. Georgia is in the round of 16 of Euro 2024!
