The Georgia national football team held its first match at the European Championship. It was a historic match, despite its result, which will remain in the history of Georgian football.
Georgia lost to Turkey but Willy Sagnol’s team showed Europe that they deserve to be part of the celebration which is called the European Championship.
Of course, the Georgians were nervous at the beginning of the match but neither Turkey had a big advantage.
The match continued with a temporary advantage. Turkey had the initiative but Georgia also had chances for counterattacks. However, Vincenzo Montella’s team scored the first goal of the match at the 25th minute when Mert Muldur made a great shot. Turkey scored the second goal in two minutes but the goal was checked on VAR and it was disallowed due to offside.
Georgia gained advantage after the disallowed goal and at the 32nd minute after Giorgi Kochorashvili’s assist, Giorgi Mikautadze scored the first goal of Georgia at the European Championship! At the 35th minute Mikautadze had a chance to score the second goal but missed.
The second half started with even battle but at the 65th minute Arda Guler scored a fantastic goal. Georgia had some chances to score goal but they could not use them. At the last minute of the match Georgia was attacking the opponent with the whole team, including goalkeeper Mamardashvili. Unfortunately, the counterattack ended with a goal by Kerem Akturkoglu in the empty net.
In any case, the Georgians deserve only praise in this match. They did everything, were close to the draw but were not lucky in many moments…
Georgia will hold the next match against Czech Republic on June 22 in Hamburg.
Turkey – Georgia 3:1 (1:1)
Dortmund, BVB Stadion
Turkey (4-2-3-1): Gunok; Muldur (Celik 85), Akaydin, Bardakci, Kadioglu; Ayhan (Demiral 79), Calhanoglu (Ozcan 89); Arda Guler (Yazici 79), Kokcu, Yildiz; Yilmaz (Akturkoglu 85)
Head coach: Vincenzo Montella
Georgia (3-4-2-1): Mamardashvili; Kvirkvelia (Zivzivadze 85), Kashia, Dvali; Kakabadze, Kochorashvili, Mekvabishvili (Altunashvili 89), Tsitaishvili (Lochoshvili 74); Chakvetadze (Davitashvili 74), Kvaratskhlia; Mikautadze
Head coach: Willy Sagnol
Goals: 1:0 Muldur (25) 1:1 Mikautadze (32), 2:1 Arda Guler (65), 3:1 Akturkoglu (90)
Yellow cards: Bardakci (35), Calhanoglu (89) - Kvirkvelia (55)
Stats – total attempts: 23 (10) – 14 (4) ball possession: 51%-49% corners taken: 5:5 offsides: 2:1
Player of the match: Arda Guler (Turkey)
Referee: Facundo Tello (Argentina)
WORLDSPORT.GE from Dortmund
