In the final round of Group F of EURO 2024, Georgia shockingly defeated Portugal 2-0 to win a historic ticket to the 1/8 round. A glorious victory for Georgia.
Facing Georgia and Portugal, although there were many changes in the squad when Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Pepe, Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha or Bernardo Silva were on the bench, Cristiano Ronaldo was still assigned the main role by coach Roberto Martinez.
It seems that CR7 is eager to find his first goal at EURO 2024, especially when the opponent is only Georgia.
Supporting CR7 on the wings are Joao Felix and Francisco Conceicao. In midfield, Joao Neves, Joao Palhinha, Pedro Neto are the starting players. Portugal’s back four includes Diogo Dalot, Danilo Pereira, Antonio Silva and Goncalo Inacio.
Right in the 2nd minute, the first shock happened when Georgia opened the score. Receiving Mikautadze’s through ball, Kvaratskhelia ran down at speed and decisively shot a diagonal shot into the Portuguese net. Receiving cold water, Portugal rushed forward but appeared stuck with many inaccurate passes.
In the 17th minute, Ronaldo took a very strong free kick from the wall, but goalkeeper Mamardashvili successfully punched the ball to save Georgia. In the time that followed, CR7 was still the focus of Seleccao’s attacks, but he was taken care of very carefully by Georgia’s defenders. Ronaldo even had to receive a yellow card for reacting after he thought he was pulled down in the penalty area during a dispute.
In the second half, Portugal pushed up the attacking team to find an equalizer. In the 47th minute, Ronaldo shot near the 5m50 box, the ball hit a Georgia player’s foot and went over the crossbar. The turning point came in the 55th minute when the referee blew the whistle to check VAR. After a few minutes of consideration, the “king in black” determined that Antonio Silva had fouled Lochoshvili in the penalty area, helping Georgia receive a penalty.
At the 11 meter mark, Mikautadze accurately scored, beating goalkeeper Diogo Costa, doubling the gap for Georgia. Portugal pressed forward to attack after that, but Georgia played excellent counter-attack defense. If they had been more accurate, coach Willy Sagnol’s team could have scored another goal against Portugal.
However, the 2-0 result was more than enough for Georgia to win a historic ticket to the 1/8 round of EURO 2024 as one of the four third-placed teams with the best records. It was definitely a sleepless night for Georgia fans.
