Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union nearly 25 years ago, the Georgian national team
has been an anonymous one in the European football landscape. Year after year they were
whipping boys in qualifying groups and, yes, they briefly had Giorgi Kinkladze, but not even
he could drag them to a tournament.
But that was then, and this is now. Georgia will play at a major tournament for the first time
with the odds firmly stacked against them. Managed by Willy Sagnol, Georgia will have to
best Portugal, Türkiye, and Czechia to even escape a nightmare group. But where there’s a
will, there’s a way, and where there’s a Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, there’s a chance.
Georgia didn’t qualify for EURO2024 through the traditional route. They finished fourth in
Group A, a whole nine points adrift of runners-up Scotland, and had to rely on the newer,
more convoluted Nations League pathway to secure their place at the tournament. There,
they had to get past Luxembourg and Greece to reach their first ever tournament. Despite the odds, as always, being against them, they managed it. A 4-2 penalty victory over Greece sent them into their first ever major tournament, almost three decades after their first attempting at qualifying for the Euros.
Understandably, then, there’s a real feel-good factor around this Georgia team- and why
not? They do have Khvicha Kvaratskhelia after all.
Napoli only paid roughly €12 million for the then little-known Dinamo Batumi winger in the
summer of 2022, but his stock has risen rather dramatically since then. It didn’t take long for
Kvaratskhelia to explode, and with him thrusting them forwards, Napoli shot to their first
Scudetto in thirty years. The fans affectionately dubbed him ‘Kvaradona,’ he won the player-
of-the season award, and now he’s leading his country at their first ever major tournament.
Not a bad couple of years, all things considered.
He’s just the tip of the iceberg, too; Georgia have quietly developed their own golden
generation. Take Giorgi Mamardshvilli, for example. The Valencia shot stopper was named
La Liga’s goalkeeper of the season after preventing the most goals (simply put, with any
other keeper, Valencia would’ve been expected to concede 10 more goals). He’s also their
first ever player to start 60 consecutive La Liga matches, making him another high-quality
Georgian mainstay in one of Europe’s top leagues.
Then there’s Georges Mikautadze. After spending much of the first half of the season flailing
on the sinking ship that was Ajax’s start to the campaign, Mikautadze was loaned back to the
side from whom he was signed, Metz. After failing to score once in the Eredivisie, he
exploded into life in Ligue 1, netting 13 goals in only 20 appearances. Metz may not have
avoided relegation, but their Georgian forward found form at the perfect time to prepare
himself for the Euros. Occupying a similar position on the pitch to Kvaratskhelia, where and
how frequently he’ll play remains up for debate – but he’s another example of the quality
in this Georgia team.
Of course, they’re not a Spain or a France: they don’t have a world class player in virtually
every position. But, in tournament football, one or two injections of quality can make all the
difference, and Georgia certainly have the capacity for that. Whether they can utilise their
talent effectively is a different question and could be down to their manager.
Probably best known for his time as a player at Bayern Munich, Willy Sagnol has been
in charge of the Georgian national team since the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, they
were eliminated from EURO2020 contention by that tournament’s rank outsiders North
Macedonia. Now, under his stewardship, they’ve forged a spot for themselves in the
limelight.
They may not have too many expectations, but that doesn’t matter for Sagnol. For him, all
that matters is that they’re there, and now they are, they’re not going to lie down when
tasked with stopping Cristiano Ronaldo and co.
“What is certain is that whether we’re playing Portugal, Czechia or Türkiye, we will never
give up and give everything we have,” he said at the start of June. Fighting talk.
Whether they can walk the walk is a different issue all together. They’re
the lowest ranked team in the tournament, playing at a major tournament for the first time in
a frighteningly tough group. But they shocked everyone to get this far. Maybe, just maybe,
they’ll go a little further.