By opening the score and playing their few shots to the full, Georgia sold their skin dearly, but the Spanish ogre ultimately made short work of it (4-1), Sunday, in the round of 16 of Euro-2024 in Cologne.
Thanks to this controlled success, La Roja wins the right to challenge the German hosts in the quarter-final, who beat Denmark (2-0) on Saturday, next Friday in Stuttgart.
Fifty minutes is about the time that the Georgians’ crazy dream lasted in their first round of 16 of their first major international competition.
But Luis de la Fuente’s men confirmed the excellent impression left in the first round with a well-oiled game which, without neglecting the preparation phases, seeks to really hurt the opponent without unnecessary convolutions.
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They can only be criticised for their lack of efficiency (36 shots, 13 on target), like Lamine Yamal’s multiple wastes in the second half.
While everyone expects him to beat the record for the earliest scorer in a Euro, held by the Swiss Johan Vonlanthen, who scored against France at Euro 2004 at 18 years and 141 days, he still has to wait. Although he is only 16 years and 11 months old – he will be 17 on July 13, the eve of the final – he has only three matches at best to write history.
The Norman finds himself
In any case, this did not prevent his teammates from recovering from an opening goal, obviously against the run of play, but which gave all the salt to this meeting.
On the first Georgian incursion beyond the halfway line, after a nice delay in the middle of the field, Georges Mikautadze shifted the full-back Otar Kakabadze who swallowed up all the space left free on the right before crossing.
Under threat from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Robin Le Normand hesitated and finally put his hip to deflect the ball fleeing just past Unai Simon’s left post (0-1, 18th), triggering jubilation in the stadium, which was largely in favour of the “Crusaders”.
But, apart from an attempt from midfield by Kvaratskhelia (48th) which Unai Simon, much too advanced, was very happy to see go wide, Georgia suffered the law of a team which had already inflicted a 7-1 and a 3-1 on them in the qualifiers.
Despite 9 more saves from Giorgi Mamardashvili, the match often resembled handball, as the white and red defence was huddled in its last 25 metres.
An understandable strategy but doomed to failure in the face of the quality of the Spanish passes, vision and movements.
The Spanish bench exults
The equalizer thus came at the end of a fairly long sequence of play where Nico Williams found Rodri with a luminous pass at ground level, alone in the center, and whose low cross shot was unstoppable (1-1, 39th).
The explosive reaction of the Spanish bench, most of whose players found themselves on the pitch, showed the relief that an equalizer before the break had given them.
On the contrary, several Georgian players fell prostrate on the pitch, as if they knew what was coming next.
When Fabian Ruiz, completely isolated at the second post, smashed a cross from Yamal with a header that was too powerful for Mamardashvili, who was still in the way (2-1, 51st), the die was cast.
With two days less rest than their opponents, after their exploit against Portugal (2-0), Willy Sagnol’s men gave everything they had left in the tank, but in vain.
They deserved the ovation from their supporters at the final whistle, and probably also from a few Spaniards.
But Williams and Dani Olmo showed off their technique in movement, their lucidity and the quality of their shots to give more scope to the Spanish victory (3-1, 75th and 4-1, 83rd) and probably nightmares to the German supporters.
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