The last round of the group stages of the UEFA Euro Cup 2024 witnessed the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Georgia, participating in its first-ever major international tournament comprehensively defeated title contenders, Portugal by a 2-0 margin. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia opened the scoring in the second minute which was followed by a composed penalty from Georges Mikautadze in the second half.
Georgian fans can be extremely proud of the exhibition put forward by the national team. Portugal will still finish at the top and will play Slovenia in the round of 16. Georgia, on the other hand, finished behind Turkiye in third due to the head-to-head record. The nation will be up against Spain in a historic first-ever appearance in the knockout stages of the European Championship.
Roberto Martinez’s three-at-the-back experiment backfires again
Portuguese supporters were left baffled by the decision of Roberto Martinez to once again go with a back-three formation. The same setup was the biggest reason for Portugal’s horrific display against Czechia on matchday one. It looked like the coach had discarded the system after the convincing performance with the traditional back-four against Turkiye.
However, in the changed line-up by Martinez, Portugal reverted to the 3-4-3 formation, which evidently affected the individual performances. One can argue that blunders like the ones from Antonio Silva were the reasons behind the defeat but the correlation between the formation and the results for Portugal cannot be ignored. The Spanish coach will need to have a look and must trust the 4-3-3 to produce success.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia finally comes good for Georgia
In what has otherwise been a wonderful showing by Georgia in the European Championship, the one big disappointment was the lackluster displays by the star forward, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The Napoli man was undoubtedly the player to look out for in the Georgian squad, which led to the opposition defenders doubling up to reduce his impact. “We succeeded, I am very proud”, were the words of a delighted Kvaratskhelia after the game.
Nevertheless, the 23-year-old was determined to redeem himself in a contest where anything other than a victory was of no value. Destiny was to side with him, as the Portuguese gifted him with an opportunity in the second minute itself which Kvaratskhelia was focused enough to take advantage of. Even apart from the goal, the left-winger was a constant threat to the Portuguese backline with eight duels won and two successful dribbles.