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GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany: Georgia produced the biggest upset in European Championship history on Wednesday by beating Portugal 2-0 thanks to Hvecha Kvaratskhelia’s opener and Georgios Mikautadze’s penalty, thus advancing to the knockout stage of their first major tournament.
Although the opponent was second-tier Portugal, which had already advanced to the next round, the victory was still Georgia’s greatest achievement since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The match, held in front of tens of thousands of rabid Georgian fans, was the biggest shock, as the team is ranked 74th in the world according to the rankings, while Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal team is sixth and became the 2016 European Championship champions.
Georgia finished a disappointing fourth in qualifying, so they had to take a circuitous route to Germany, first by winning their group in the less-than-spectacular European Nations Championship and then beating Greece in the play-offs.
But coach Willy Sagnol, a former Bayern Munich and France defender, and his team finished third in Group F of that tournament and faced three-time European Championship champions Spain in the round of 16, and there was no sense of amiss.
The two teams met in a World Cup qualifier in Germany last September, when Spain beat Georgia 7-1 in Tbilisi, but Sagnol sounded unfazed by the scale of the challenge ahead.
“When you are a small team … you know you have nothing to lose … you don’t have any weight on your shoulders,” Sagnol told reporters. “I don’t have much to say today. I am proud to be their head coach.”
Georgia’s victory also means that England will face Slovakia, Romania will face the Netherlands and Portugal will face Slovenia in the last 16. Hungary, which had been expected to advance to the next round, was eliminated.
In Wednesday’s other Group F match, Turkey advanced to the last 16 with a 2-1 win over the 10-man Czech Republic, who have now returned home.
Georgia, playing in the tournament for the first time, took the lead just 93 seconds into the game when Kavalatsklia took a careless pass from Antonio Silva, ran with the ball and fired a low shot past Portugal’s Diogo Costa goalkeeper.
“This is the best day of my life,” the Napoli winger said. “We made history, nobody believed we would beat Portugal. But we proved to everyone that Georgia can do it.”
Ronaldo is tied
Ronaldo was one of only three players to start for Portugal as they beat Turkey 3-0 on Saturday. He fought hard for every goal as the 39-year-old bid to become the oldest goalscorer in European Championship history.
But Georgia defended desperately, trying to seize Portugal’s counterattack opportunities. In the 53rd minute, Silva was fouled in the penalty area and was awarded a penalty after a VAR check, which compounded his previous mistake.
Mikautadze passed the ball to Kvaratsklia early on for him to open the scoring, and he then converted the penalty kick to become the top scorer of the 2024 European Championship so far with three goals.
Ronaldo was booked for an altercation in the first half and kicked a water bottle in frustration when he was substituted in the second half. It was the first time in his long career that he had failed to score in the group stage of a major international tournament.
Portugal coach Roberto Martinez said his side were unable to match the quality of their opponents.
“We didn’t underestimate Georgia, but Georgia was playing one of their historic games at the time … and we were already at the top of the group going into the last game,” he said.
Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili made a last-gasp save to stop a Portuguese attack, and as the game ended, the rest of the team and coaching staff rushed onto the pitch, jumping and dancing in front of the fans.
The celebrations were well deserved. Georgia came close to a draw with Turkey but lost 3-1 in their opening match, and a few days later missed a golden opportunity to draw 1-1 with the Czech Republic, leaving them on the brink of elimination – until Wednesday’s historic night in Gelsenkirchen.
— Reuters
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