Georgia outshines Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in the final match of Euro 2024 Group F match to qualify for round of 16 in its first outing in a major international tournament.
Georgia staggered Portugal to reach the knockouts at Euro 2024 – its to begin with ever major competition – with a 2-0 win over the previous European winner on Wednesday, settled by an early Khvicha Kvaratskhelia strike and a Georges Mikautadze penalty.
The win, yet against a to a great extent second-string Portugal who had as of now made it into the following circular, spoken to the most prominent result for Georgia since the nation picked up freedom from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Having come a disillusioning fourth in its Euro qualifying bunch, Georgia had to take a circuitous course to Germany, to begin with by winning its gather in the less impressive Euro Countries competition and at that point vanquishing Greece in a play-off.
But there was nothing undeserved almost the way Coach Willy Sagnol, the previous Bayern Munich and France guard, and his side claimed a third-place wrap up in the tournament’s Gather F and set up a last-16 assembly with three-time Euro champs Spain.
Georgia’s win moreover implies that Britain will line up against Slovakia, Romania take on Netherlands and Portugal confront Slovenia in the circular of 16. Hungary, who had been in dispute for a spot in the following circular, were edged out.
The competition debutant took the lead in the moment diminutive when Kvaratskhelia, the Napoli winger, dashed absent after a careless pass by Antonio Silva and fueled a moo shot past Diogo Costa in Portugal’s goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo – one of as it were three starters for Portugal who moreover played in its 3-0 win over Turkey on Saturday – extended and strained for each ball as he looked for to ended up the most seasoned objective scorer at a Euro competition at the age of 39.
But Georgia protected as if its lives depended upon it and looked for to capture Portugal on the break. In the 53rd miniature, Silva compounded his prior mistake by committing a foul in the box that was granted a punishment after a VAR check.
Mikautadze, who had given the pass for Kvaratskhelia to open the scoring early on, directed his spot kick past Costa, making him the best scorer at Euro 2024 so distant with three goals.
Ronaldo was booked in the to begin with half for contending and cut a disappointed figure when he was substituted after the break, kicking out at a water bottle.
Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili made late spares to keep Portugal at narrows in the last minutes, and at full time Georgia’s squad and coaching staff sprinted on to the field to celebrate in front of thousands of its fans. Know More Latest Football News…
