Georgia secures a historic qualification against Portugal, Turkey also reaches the 8th

Continuation and end of the group stages of this Euro 2024 with the last two days of group F. Portugal, already qualified and assured of being first, faced Georgia who were therefore playing for their qualification and needed a victory. For this meeting, Roberto Martinez rotated his squad with 8 changes. If Cristiano Ronaldo was still on the attacking front, we found Joao Felix, Danilo Pereira or even Pedro Neto, Joao Neves and Francisco Conceicao. For his part, Willy Sagnol lined up the typical team with the attacking duo Georges Mikautadze-Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and the hero Giorgi Mamardashvili in goals.

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Everything started perfectly for Georgia in this meeting since after an ill-adjusted back pass from Antonio Silva, Mikautadze recovered the ball 40 meters from the goal. Messin delivered a deep pass to Kvaratskhelia who went alone on goal. The Napoli striker did not tremble and opened the scoring after two minutes of play (1-0). A goal which offered a historic qualification to the Georgian team, but it was now necessary to hold out an entire match against the onslaught of the Portuguese attackers. Joao Felix tried several times to set the opposing defense on fire, but his shots did not go far from the target each time.

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Portugal-Georgia: the hot reaction of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia

Turkey is doing well

Returning from the locker room, Portugal started again on the same basis. Cristiano Ronaldo, who could have benefited from a penalty in the first half, increased his attempts. When it wasn’t him, it was the Portuguese defenders who tried from afar. But each time Giorgi Mamardashvili kept an eye on things. And Georgia was even rewarded for its good performance. On the hour mark, Mikautadze scored another penalty to make the break (57th) and become the top scorer of the Euro. A goal which will be enough to validate the historic qualification for the round of 16 of the competition.

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In the other match of the day, Turkey and the Czech Republic played their qualification. The Turks had to win to secure second place while the Czechs had no other choice than victory. Helped by a red card from Antonin Barak after 20 minutes of play, Vincenzo Montella’s team managed to make the difference after returning from the locker room. It was, as a symbol, captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu who opened the scoring in this meeting (52nd). But a few minutes later, following an error by goalkeeper Mert Gunok, the Czech Republic equalized and completely reignited the suspense in this group. Captain Soucek’s goal gave a disjointed end to the match which benefited Turkey, as Cenk Tosun sealed the victory for his team (2-1, 90th+5). With these three points, Turkey holds second place while the Czech Republic finishes in last place.