The day after Georgia’s historic qualification for the last 16 of the Euro, Georgian coach Willy Sagnol was the special guest on After Thursday on RMC. An opportunity for the former Bordeaux coach to share his joy.
This is the nice surprise of this start of Euro 2024. For its first participation in a European championship, Georgia has secured its ticket for the round of 16. Although beaten at the start by Turkey (3-1), Willy Sagnol’s team created a sensation by holding the Czech Republic to a draw (1-1) and then beating Portugal (2-0) on Wednesday evening.
A real feat for the Caucasian country which only has 40,000 men’s licensees. “It’s huge, out of all proportion to what I’ve experienced as a player,” admitted French coach Willy Sagnol (58 caps with the Blues), exceptional guest of the After Thursday evening on RMC.
“A stronger spine”
And the former Bordeaux coach continued: “When you’re a player, you’re always in action, you’re young, you feel like you have your whole life ahead of you. When you’re a coach, that means you’re a little older, you have more experience and maybe you take more time to appreciate the good things. That’s what I’m experiencing at the moment.”
While Georgia will have nothing to lose against Spain on Sunday evening (9 p.m.) in the round of 16, Willy Sagnol does not want to highlight an individuality even if the goalkeeper Mamardashvili, the Neapolitan Kvaratskhelia or the Metz scorer Mikautadze stood out: “A team is eleven players. The luck or the work, with Georgia, is that we have a stronger spine but that is not everything,” concludes the former right-back.
