Khvicha and company were humiliated on their own field. The fans refused to watch it

The Georgian national football team has never qualified for the World and European Championships. However, the current generation of footballers seemed ready to take a historic step. Willy Sagnol’s team has plenty of quality football players playing in strong European championships, and they also have a real star of continental, if not global scale, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Having made a satisfactory start in the Euro 2024 qualifying, the Georgians seriously hoped to get into Germany, but when they met the Spaniards, they were simply helpless.

The historical failure of the Georgian national team in front of their fans.

No miracle happened

In the qualifying match for the 2024 European Championship, the Georgian national team hosted the Spanish team in the fifth round. Although it is hardly appropriate to compare the historical achievements of the opponents, in the run-up to this particular meeting the hosts were higher in the standings. Willy Sagnol’s team had four points after three matches, while the “red fury” only had three points, albeit after two games played. Thus, the hypothetical victory of the Georgians not only made it possible to talk about the overthrow of the grandee, but also quite specifically influenced the balance in the group.

The favorite in this meeting was obvious with all due respect to the Transcaucasian team, but Georgia had a trump card in the face of the Golden Ball contender Khvichi Kvaratskhelia. But this time the ex-player of Lokomotiv and Rubin had among his partners not high-class performers from the Serie A champion, but players of a lower level. Footballers from Bordeaux, Watford, Ajax, and Valencia are not bad, but when the opponents are the leaders of the leading teams in Primera, Ligue 1 and the Premier League, the result is generally predictable. However, sometimes miracles happen.

Georgia held out for half the half, and in the 22nd minute Giorgi Mamardashvili went to take the first ball out of the net. Marco Asensio crossed into the penalty area, Alvaro Morata won the fight in the air – 1:0 in favor of the guests. Just five minutes later, Solomon Kverkvelia helped develop the “red fury’s” advantage. Fabian Ruiz, being in the penalty area, crossed, and the former Lokomotiv defender hastened to close the cross. Of course, it was an absurd accident, but after this it was already difficult for Sagnol’s team to return to the game.

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A dark day for the Georgian team

Before the break, Spain managed to score twice more: first, Dani Olmo powerfully shot into the goal from outside the penalty area, and just two minutes later, Morata scored a double, punishing the Georgian defense together with Ruiz for an error. Having 0:4 at the break, it would be somehow strange for the Georgian footballers to think about victory. However, one could try to save face and reduce the gap in the score. Georgy Chakvetadze tried to do this, quickly winning one goal back at the beginning of the second half. Local football fans were briefly inspired, but the Spaniards did not think of quitting playing.

Morata, having scored a double, was not against scoring a hat-trick, since the opponent allowed it. In the 65th minute of the match, the Atlético forward realized his plan – he got close to the goalkeeper and won the duel without any problems. The next goal, unfortunately for the Georgian football players, was not the last. Nico Williams, who entered the game from the bench, also wanted to write his name in history – he burst into the penalty area from the left flank, bypassed all the obstacles in the form of opponents along the way and fired into the goal from close range. 1:6 – this is exactly the score Georgia lost to Denmark in 2005, and this was the team’s biggest defeat. Until the Spaniards wanted to update the record numbers.

In the 74th minute a historic moment happened. Williams repeated the trick he had done earlier, but this time he did not hit, but rolled the ball back to his partner. This partner turned out to be the youngest football player in the history of the Spanish national team, 16-year-old Lamil Yamal, who fired a hearty shot at Mamardashvili’s goal. The Valencia goalkeeper was unlucky again – one of the most promising goalkeepers in the history of modern Georgian football had the dubious honor of defending the goal on this dark day for the national team.

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Russian fans with moderate experience can imagine what Georgian football fans are feeling now – after 1:7 in Lisbon on an ill-fated October night in 2004, many were in a bad mood. True, there were no high expectations from Georgy Yartsev’s team at that time – our team did not have any current contenders for the Golden Ball. Fans of the Georgian national team before the game with the Spaniards were probably very optimistic and hardly thought that they would see the team’s worst result in history. And in the end, 15 minutes before the end of the match, the stadium was practically empty.

Watch qualifying matches for the 2024 European Championship live on Match TV and other TV channels of the holding.