Georgia scores huge upset over Portugal to reach Euro 2024 knockout stage

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Georgia just pulled off the biggest upset of the ongoing Euro football league so far after taking down Portugal, 2-0, on June 26, 2024, at Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

The win was so huge due to the ranking disparity as Georgia is currently placed no. 74 in the world while Portugal remained the sixth-best team on the international stage.

Georgia flattened Portugal in all facets of the game and took advantage of the latter’s loose personnel rotation.

With Portugal already qualified in the next stage and grabbed top honors of Group F, head coach Roberto Martinez took the risk of experimenting with more options among his players against Georgia.

However, the underdogs showed that they couldn’t be taken lightly as they quickly drew first blood with only two minutes registered into the game.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia delivered for Georgia after scoring the first goal of the game with a powerful left tap kick inside the penalty area.

After the demoralizing goal, Portugal didn’t feel themselves and was completely outplayed by Georgia for the rest of the game.

Although Portugal had many great looks that would’ve put them in the scoring column, Georgia’s defensive backline did wonders and held their ground against Cristiano Ronaldo and the talented Portuguese strikers.

Georgia then sent in the early fatal blow in the 57^th minute after Georges Mikautadze scored a penalty kick that helped double their lead, 2-0.

Despite another set of great offensive sets for Portugal in the next 20 minutes of the match, execution became an issue as they just couldn’t buy a goal.

With the win, Georgia just set up a Round of 16 tournament showdown against another powerhouse team in Spain while Portugal will shoot for their revenge against Slovenia.