Against Georgia, Portugal made several changes to their lineup, with Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Pepe, Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha, and Bernardo Silva starting on the bench. However, coach Roberto Martinez still placed Cristiano Ronaldo in the central role.

CR7 seemed eager to score his first goal of EURO 2024, especially since the opponent was Georgia. Supporting him on the wings were Joao Felix and Francisco Conceicao.

The midfield featured Joao Neves, Joao Palhinha, and Pedro Neto as the starting players. Portugal’s back four consisted of 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.