What a night in the history of European football we witnessed on Wednesday as Willy Sagnol's Georgia side raised the loudest dust at the ongoing European championship with a convincing 2-0 victory over tournament favourites, Portugal.
I was caught in a little dilemma yesterday just before the game started on whether to leave my captain armband with Harry Kane who had pooled 4 points in my Euro fantasy team, but I decided to take a big leap of faith by switching to Cristiano Ronaldo. Very much understanding that Portugal had won the group regardless of what happened, I just was hoping on Ronaldo getting one or two goals to uplift my team.
I had barely settled into my seat to watch the game when I lifted my head and saw that Georgia had already scored. It felt like they scored from the dugout. Going behind early gave me more confidence of Ronaldo scoring as I believed the former European champions would definitely rally back and turn the game around. In fact, a poll on one of Al-Jazeerah's tweet had given Ronald a 53% vote of scoring in the game. Everything was made in dreamland.
Fair play to Roberto Martinez who named a much changed side with five regulars hitting the bench: Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias, Bernando Silva, Joao Cancelo and the evergreen Pepe; however, the Portuguese side still had enough quality on the field to have gotten the job done. Spain made 10 changes to their team in their last group game against Albania and still got all three points. They're definitely the side to beat at this championship.
Antonio Silva must be having nightmares since the game as he was complicit in the two goals Portugal conceded. First, cheaply giving away possession in the opening stages of the game that allowed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to open the scoring, before also conceding the penalty just before the hour mark that Georges Mikautadze, who had earlier provided Kvaratskhelia's goal converted.
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Ronaldo catching a frustrated figure on the bench after being substituted
Portugal coach Martinez had to make a decision to take out captain Ronaldo who was getting frustrated by his team's lack of creativity and got booked for complaining to the referee on what he felt was a potential penalty from a shirt pull in the Georgian box. There was no need risking losing his star man, who although is yet to score at this year's tournament, became the first European player to make 50 appearances at major tournaments.
Portugal were far from convincing and this perhaps was a needed reality check for them. They were not overly superior in their first two games either, although their experience and quality saw them over line. Nonetheless, they had opportunities of their own but Giorgi Marmashdavili seemed to have taken a bet to not concede against them. The Valencia of Spain goalkeeper shut down their every opportunity, especially two vital saves in the closing minutes.
Of course, no one expected Georgia to qualify from the group stage, not even as one of the best losers they definitely made history; a night never to be forgotten in their footballing history.
Despite being the lowest ranked team at this tournament (75), they have now set a date for themselves against the 6th highest ranked team of the tournament, Spain (8) in the knockout stage.
I doubt Spain will want to take any chances with them at this moment but they've shown they can be a banana skin and even if they go out in the hands of the tournament's favourites, they'd be doing so with their heads held high.