Georgia’s fairy tale at the Euros continued! But it was only half the result against Spain.
Anatoly Romanov July 1, 2024, 00:05 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Sagnol’s team suffered a big defeat and the Spanish will face the Germans in the quarterfinals.
The fairy tale of the Georgian national team at Euro 2024 ended with the mighty Spain. Luis de la Fuente’s team achieved a great victory and advanced to the quarter-finals. There a crazy match awaits us: Spain against Germany!
“Football is full of surprises. We have nothing to lose. We are not afraid of anything,” said Georgian national team coach Willy Sagnol before the match against the Spaniards. In fact, the Georgians no longer have the same team that beat Spain 1:7 in the qualifying round for Euro 2024. Although the game from the start turned out exactly as everyone expected. The Red Fury took the ball and pressed with terrible force. The Georgians sat deep in defence.
Perhaps it was especially difficult for the Georgian team’s full-backs Kakabadze and Lochoshvili, who defended the edges in a 5-3-2 formation. One was supposed to face Williams and the other Yamal. The Spaniards left their dribblers alone with their opponents or pushed a whole group of players to the flanks, trying to create a numerical advantage there and combine. They bombarded Valencia goalkeeper Mamardashvili’s area with crosses, which is not a typical weapon for the Spanish. De la Fuente’s men created the first scoring opportunity right after the center.
It was very difficult for the Georgian team without counterplay. When the Georgians finally organized a quick response attack and scored in the 18th minute, the statistics of accurate passes in the opposing third reflected Spain’s gigantic advantage: 96:4. Sagnol’s team didn’t even need Simon’s first touch in the box to score! The counterattack began with Kvaratskhelia keeping the ball on the left, then Mikautadze dragged the ball along the center line of the field and turned the attack with a pass to the right, where Kakabadze made a powerful lunge forward. The Polish Krakow winger cut off a cross from Khvicha, but Le Norman beat him to it: the centre-back sent the ball into his own goal with his belly. This is already the eighth own goal in the European Championship.
The Spanish did not expect such an embarrassment and little Georgia rejoiced in the stands of the Cologne stadium. People did not believe in their luck. However, the Spanish team defended itself even before the break. The match went along the same lines, the Spanish had the ball approximately 80% of the time and took 17 shots in the first half and six on goal. The Georgians only had two goals: one from inside the area and another from the center of the field.
Another positional attack by de la Fuente ended with a cold pass from Williams to Rodri. The defenders of Sagnol’s team put too much pressure on the defenders: the Manchester City midfielder decided the episode with two touches, shooting impeccably low from the semicircle. Here Mamardashvili showed himself helpless. The referees verified the legitimacy of the goal. We came to the conclusion that captain Morata, who was in front of the goalkeeper, had no influence on the episode.
When Kvaratskhelia launched a counterattack and fired another shot from the centre of the pitch in the first minutes after the break, it was clear that this was no coincidence. Rather, it was a small detail of the Georgian national team’s grand plan. Sagnol probably drew the players’ attention to Simon’s exits from the goal and asked them to take advantage of it. Khvicha was not far from scoring. And in the 51st minute, the Spaniards scored their second goal. After a dangerous free kick and a save by Mamardashvili, the Red Fury grabbed the rebound, Yamal crossed from the right midfield to Fabian Ruiz, who missed the defenders, and he headed in. This was the Spaniards’ sixth successful cross out of 25.
Read about Euro 2024:
Having taken the lead, the Spanish team was not going to give the ball away. De la Fuente’s team still had a huge territorial advantage and controlled the game. The Spaniards forced the tired Georgians to run after the ball and quickly gave it back to them. However, on a couple of occasions Sagnol’s team came out on top of the opponent’s high pressure thanks to the technical and speed qualities of its players. One day, the Georgians launched a multi-pronged attack very beautifully: if Tsitaishvili had been calmer in front of the opposing goal, he would have taken advantage of a real goal-scoring opportunity.
This was the last chance for the Georgian team to tie: in the 75th minute all questions about the winner disappeared. The Georgians opened up, Williams ran from the center of the field, playfully treated Gvelesiani of the Iranian championship and put the ball under the crossbar. It is curious that before this there was another own goal (made by Gvelesiani himself), but it was disallowed for offside.
In the end, the Georgian team no longer had energy or reliability in defense. The Spanish continued to create chances bravely. The final statistics of shots is 35:4 (from the area – 21:1, on goal – 13:0, excluding own goal). Olmo gave a great victory for Spain, scoring after an attack in the center and an error by Dvali, who finished the game in the rings. However, despite being eliminated after a three-goal defeat, the Georgian team earned the applause of its fans for its outstanding performance in the tournament.
