Spain, the only Eurocup team to have won its three group stage matches – against Croatia, Italy and Albania – will face Georgia in the round of 16, classified as the best third in Group F. The match, which La Roja arrives as favorites and After a great start to the tournament, it will be played in Cologne on Sunday, June 30 at 9 p.m. The Eastern European team added four points in this first round of the championship. First they lost to Türkiye (3-1), then drew against the Czech Republic (1-1) and this afternoon they surprisingly defeated Portugal (2-0), who had already been classified first in the group and rested many of his usual starters.
Georgia – 74th in the ranking FIFA managed to advance to the round of 16 in the country's first appearance in a European championship after gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Until then it had never managed to qualify for the continental tournament, and never did. also a World Cup. The team from the Eastern European country was part of the Spanish group in the qualifying phase for the European Championship. In both matches, La Roja defeated their Sunday rival with a lot of superiority.
During the first meeting, held in Tbilisi last September, Luis de la Fuente's team enjoyed a fantastic performance (1-7). in which Morata scored a hat-trick and Lamine Yamal made his debut at just 16 years and 57 days old, the youngest in history to play for La Roja. Two months later, on the way back, Spain won again (3-1), but the match left traces of Gavi's serious injury. The Barcelona midfielder missed the rest of the season after breaking the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and also suffering damage to the external meniscus. In total, Spain and Georgia have faced each other seven times, with six wins for La Roja and only one defeat (19 goals for and four against).
The qualification for the round of 16 is a success for Georgia, a team whose big stars are Giorgi Mamardashvili (23 years old), the Valencia goalkeeper, and especially Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (23), the Napoli winger. He is the great football icon of the country, who saw how the number of children who started kicking the ball in schools almost doubled in recent years, during which Kvaratskhelia and his team achieved spectacular performances. – with which he won the Serie A in 2023, 33 years after the last one Shield which Maradona brought up – just like with his team.
The man who led the Georgian team to its first European Championship is Willy Sagnol, a legend of the French team and Bayern Munich. He signed in February 2021 after serving as Carlo Ancelotti's assistant in the Bavarian team and previously managing Girondins Bordeaux for almost two seasons. “Whether we qualify or not? I think it would be a mistake to talk about it now and it would only put pressure on the players (…), but the potential is there,” Sagnol warned during the European Championship qualifying phase.
The Eastern European country's team will be the most affordable rival Spain will have during the qualifying rounds. Four of the big favorites – Germany, France, Portugal and La Roja itself – are on the same side of the draw. In the quarter-finals, the team led by Luis de la Fuente can already be seen with the German team – it will play against Denmark in the round of 16 – on July 5 in Stuttgart, while it would be logical that the semi-finals would be against France. – the big favorite will be against Belgium or Portugal on the 9th.
On the other side of the table is England, who arrived at the European Championship as one of the leading candidates for the title. and that raised many doubts in the first phase: and Italy – the current champion -, who already defeated Spain in the group stage with a formidable performance. La Roja would not face them until the final, which will be played in Berlin on July 14 at 9 p.m.
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