Georgia’s magnificent run at Euro 2024 came to an end on Sunday evening after the defeat against Spain (4-1). A fairly logical setback but which remains in the throat of Georgian coach Willy Sagnol.
Heroic against Portugal in the group stage, Georgia was on course to achieve a new feat against Spain, Sunday evening in the round of 16 of Euro 2024. And for good reason, Willy Sagnol’s team managed to opening the score against the run of play against La Roja, before being caught and logically losing with a score of 4-1. The final result is heavy for Georgia but not totally illogical in view of the almost undivided domination of Spain and its fiery attack, articulated around its two rockets, namely Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal.
There is no dispute about the Spanish victory, even if in the Georgian camp, the equalizing goal scored by Rodri just before half-time is difficult to digest. On the strike from the Manchester City midfielder, Spanish captain Alvaro Morata is in an offside position. His placement considerably hampered Georgian goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, but the goal was ultimately awarded by the French referees of the match. Enough to make Willy Sagnol angry.
Willy Sagnol rails against VAR
“Morata is clearly offside on the shot. You can see it on the image, our goalkeeper is forced to move to see the ball. I think there was a power cut in the VAR bus. If we disallowed the Dutch goal against France, because Dumfries was offside, then there was ten times more reason to disallow that Spanish goal tonight. If we had gone into the break leading 1-0, we would have had more energy in the second half.” said Willy Sagnol, who can’t really be blamed on this one. This decision would undoubtedly not have changed the course of the match, as the Spanish domination was total, but we can understand the frustration of the former coach of the Girondins de Bordeaux after this incident of play which allowed Spain to come back at 1-1 before rolling out and winning by three goals. In the quarter-final, Luis de la Fuente’s team will face Germany in the clash of this Euro 2024.
