Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored past Portugal, 1 minute, 35 seconds after kick-off to give Georgia the lead and eventually beat the heavyweight 2-0 and confirm its spot in the Euro 2024 round of 16. In 2015, Georgia was ranked 154th in world FIFA ranking. Cut to nine years later and it has become one of the sixteen best teams in the European Championship.
The tiny country of a 69,700 km2 area and with a population of just 3.7 million entered as the biggest underdog since this is its first major international tournament. However, it caused the biggest upset so far by beating the one-time champion led by none other than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Although Georgia lost its opening game against Turkey and drew the following match against Czechia, a dominant win over the Portuguese side is a statement that no team can take the debutant lightly heading into the knockout stages. Georgia plays a straightforward style of football but its beauty lies in the ordinary and direct approach taken by its head coach Willy Sagnol. Like most teams in this edition, Georgia plays with three centre-backs in a 3-5-2 formation and two wing-backs, who mostly operate as the full-backs making it a five-at-the-back defensive setup.
Georgia may lack the individual quality in players to hold the ball and control the tempo of the game, which is why it doesn’t even try to do so. It had a possession of just 27% in its match against Portugal and 38% against Czechia. Portugal had 22 shots in the game and dictated the p.
