Portugal fell to defeat at the hands of a Georgia side ranked 68 places below them in FIFA’s world rankings as the Euro 2024 group stage concluded on Wednesday night.
Cristiano Ronaldo and co. will take up their place in the last 16 of the competition, but so too will Georgia in their major tournament debut, knocking Hungary out of the four best-ranked third place group stage finishers in the process.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s early goal set the tone for Georgia, who executed a masterful gameplan set by former France international Willy Sagnol. The defence and goalkeeper then kept Portugal at bay long enough for Georges Mikautadze to double the lead from the penalty spot in the second half and ultimately knock the stuffing out of the 2016 European champions.
How the game unfolded
Portugal were already guaranteed to win Group F before kick-off, leading Roberto Martinez to make eight changes from the side that beat Turkey last time out. Only Ronaldo, Joao Palhinha and goalkeeper Diogo Costa retained their places in the lineup.
But less than two minutes were on the clock when a disastrous loose pass from highly-rated Benfica centre-back Antonio Silva gifted Georgia the opening goal. The 20-year-old hadn’t scanned properly when he knocked the ball back, with Mikautadze snapping it up and feeding Kvaratskhelia to run through on goal. He kept his cool to finish beyond Costa as the Georgian fans erupted.
Ronaldo, desperately seeking a goal at this tournament, stung the palms of goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili with an ambitious free-kick from distance. The 39-year-old was visibly annoyed when Silva got in his way trying to reach a back-post header, while Francisco Conceicao went on to strike the side netting from a decent position as Portuguese pressure grew.
Joao Felix wasn’t far away from just outside the box and Giorgi Gvelesiani threw himself in front of Ronaldo to block a goal-bound half volley. Almost immediately up the other end, the Georgian centre-back just failed to make contact with a glorious free-kick delivery as a reminder of the threat.
Pedro Neto almost caught out Mamardashvili with an in-swinging corner at the end of the first half, with Ronaldo gesticulating and complaining as the teams walked off at the break.
Ronaldo’s eyes lit up early in the second half when the ball fell to him in the six-yard box, with Lasha Dvali pulling off the heroic block to deny him. But Portugal still looked vulnerable to a long ball or counter and a cleaner contact from…
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