Georgia can be proud, says Sagnol after defeat to Türkiye in thrilling game

Georgian manager Willy Sagnol spoke to the press this evening after his team, making their major tournament debut, gave a strong account of themselves and played the game of EURO2024 so far against Türkiye.

Though they went behind in the first half, Georgia showed spirit with an equaliser and ultimately fell victim to a 3-1 defeat which belies their strong performance.

What did Willy Sagnol say?

“I think of course when you lose it’s never nice, obviously, but for my team and I, the most important things were somewhere else and I think that we have given such a nice image of Georgian football. I think we can be proud of that.”

“We had a lot of opportunities to score, probably as much as Türkiye did.”

“I don’t want to say we are happy losers today but I think we can be proud of our performance.”

He reflected on the wider context of Georgia’s participation, with this being their first ever major tournament appearance.

“I think we should always look at the bigger picture. This EURO comes off the back of a lot of work in Georgia, getting youngsters involved over the past decade, and this tournament is reward for that investment.”

“I think Georgia is still in a very important phase of development and competitions like that should help all the players, should help the staff, the federation, to be even stronger in the future.”

He was also happy to congratulate Georges Mikautadze on scoring the nation’s first ever goal at a major tournament. “There’s always a first person for the first time and yes, [Georges Mikautadze] scored the first goal in our history and I’m very happy for him because he has also played a very, very good match today.”

Asked what he felt was missing from the performance, Sagnol said only: “Maybe I will say a bit of talent, bit of experience – things we are going to get playing these kind of games.”

“This kind of game in the next months, in the next years, I’m sure Georgia won’t lose this kind of game anymore. I don’t have anything negative to say about [the players].”

Sagnol also commented, if joking begrudgingly, on what was probably the best atmosphere of the tournament so far.

“We were playing today in one of the most fantastic stadiums of the world; it cost me a lot to say that, I’m Bayern Munich and saying that about Dortmund!”

“The atmosphere in the stadium, it was a great atmosphere, I think for a lot of my players it was something new.

“Türkiye played a fantastic match, Georgia played a fantastic match – I think the atmosphere and the match fit together.”

The final goal of the match was scored in unfortunate fashion, when Georgia’s risk of sending goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili up to attack a corner in the final moment saw their goal left exposed for Kerem Aktürkoğlu to pounce and score Türkiye’s third.

Asked about the keeper coming up for the final attack, Sagnol suggested: “It was the last minute and for us to lose 2-1 or to lose 3-1, it’s exactly the same. We wanted to bring something to try to at least make the draw because I think we would have deserved it. we tried, we didn’t make it, it’s the story of football. I have nothing negative to say about that.”

“To get out of the group, of course when you start a Euro you can have this goal, but for us most important is to provide good performances because that’s how we’re going to get better.”

“I can tell you already on Saturday [against Czechia], I’m convinced we’re going to provide the same kind of performance and I’m very excited already thinking about Saturday.”