The French coach of Georgia joked about the action which brought Rodri’s equalizer just before the break. In an offside position, Morata screens the Georgian goalkeeper, but his position was not judged illegal by the video assistance.
Would Spain have won without a little help from VAR in the first half when they were behind? Probably. Their superiority was too obvious. Willy Sagnol did not even try to argue this point, “Spain deserved their victory”, he readily acknowledged. But the Georgia coach, like his goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, felt a slight hint of bitterness at the end of the match. “We might have lost, but an opening goal from the opposition is always decisive”, said the Valencia FC goalkeeper, who was still struggling to get over the equaliser in the mixed zone. “The turning point of the match”, according to Willy Sagnol.
“Morata is clearly in an offside position”
In a state of grace in the first period (5 saves), Mamardashvili lost to a brilliant strike from Rodri (39th) at the end of a long sequence of play. Served by Williams, Rodri hooked before following up with the left to deceive the opposing goalkeeper before the break and relieve a Spanish bench who celebrated this equalizer as if it offered victory to La Roja. Should it only have been granted by François Letexier? Because Alvaro Morata, in an offside position, seemed to mask the Georgian goalkeeper. Which the latter also confirmed, unlike the VAR whose decision he could only deplore. “He bothered me a lot, it was obviously offside,” he complained.
“Morata is clearly offside on the shot,” Willy Sagnol said on beIN Sports. “We can see it on the image, our goalkeeper is forced to move to get the ball. I think there was a power cut in the VAR bus.” “If we disallowed the Dutch goal against France, for an offside by Dumfries, then there were ten times more reasons to disallow this Spanish goal tonight,” he added in a press conference. If we had gone into the break leading 1-0, we would have had more energy in the second half.”
Georgia held off Spain for fifty minutes before bowing to the superiority of the Spaniards’ moving play, which ended up breaking in the last twenty minutes. Disappointed but a good player, goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili thinks that La Roja “will beat Germany” and that they can “quietly win this Euro because there is so much talent in this team”.
