Euro 2024’s lowest-ranked team Georgia — after their sensational big tournament debut — were packing their bags with no regrets and only one thought in mind: how to do it all again.
The Georgians had been seen by most football pundits as no-hopers making up the numbers in Germany.
Yet guided by canny French coach Willy Sagnol and inspired by tricky-dribbling talisman Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, they shocked opponents with a simple formula of old-school defending and rampaging counter-attacks. The 74th-ranked “Crusaders” even beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, ranked sixth, en route to the knockouts.
Then in a last-16 defeat to Spain, they gave the watching world a jaw-dropping moment, taking the lead with the only goal their illustrious opponents have let in this edition.
“Everyone will want only one thing: to come back,” said a proud Sagnol, who had already declared his team the real “winners” of the tournament after the 2-0 win over Portugal last week.
“We will try our best to come back in a major competition. Playing against the best players, the best teams, in great stadiums, in great atmosphere, and to give the opportunity to a lot of Georgian fans to come here.”
As well as on the pitch, Georgia won admiration for their white-and-red clad fans, whose ubiquitous St George’s cross flag was sometimes confused with England’s.
The team’s performances brought thousands onto the streets of Tbilisi and eclipsed bitter disputes betweena Georgian government thathas deepened ties to Russia, and a more pro-Westernopposition.
Usually at loggerheads, President Salome Zourabichvili and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze even sat together in Cologne for the Spain game.
“Sometimes losing is winning!” Zourabichvili said.
“This is history and means that Georgian football has taken one very big step forward,” said Kobakhidze.
