"Didn't think it was possible"

The Georgian team became a sensation on Euro 2024. Talking about the stars of the team

The group stage of Euro-2024 ended. In the last match, Georgia beat Portugal with a score of 2: 0 and entered the playoffs of the European Championship. The goals scored Khvich Kvratshelia (2nd minute) and Giorgi Mikautadze (57th, from the penalty).

For the Portuguese national team, the game did not solve anything - they secured a way out of the group from the first place in advance. At the same time, they put up the strongest composition - with Cristiano Ronaldo - and were considered unconditional favorites. After the sensational victory of Georgia, tens of thousands of fans took to the streets of Tbilisi - they chanted, sang and danced. The television tower at night was painted in the colors of the Georgian flag. In the 1/8 finals, Georgia will find another test - it will play with Spain. Novyevropa tells about the stars of the Georgian team, thanks to which the team escaped in the 1/8 finals.

Forward Khvich Kvratshelia

The captain of the Georgian national team, who scored the first goal in the match with Portugal. He was born on February 12, 2001 in Tbilisi. His father Badri Kvratshelia was a professional football player who won the Georgian Championship and became the champion of Azerbaijan four times.

Kvratshelia is a pupil of the Tbilisi Dynamo. The idol of the football player was Cristiano Ronaldo. In July 2013, Ronaldo was present at the official opening of the training base of the Tbilisi Dynamo, and it was there that Kvratsheliyavavvyvv was heavied with his favorite. In Euro 2024, the Georgian striker played with the legend of the Portuguese team in the last match of the group stage-and won it.

During his career, Kvratshelia managed to play for Russian and Georgian teams, in particular, for the Moscow Lokomotiv and Kazan Rubin.

With Lokomotiv, Khvich became the owner of the country's Cup and the silver medalist of the Russian Premier League. In 2020, he received the title of the best football player of the year in Georgia.

After the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kvratshelia left Russia and moved to Dynamo Batumi. And in July 2022, he officially became a player in the Italian Napoli. In the first match with the Italian club Ellas Verona, he demonstrated high equipment in an attack and scored a goal. At the end of the summer, a football player was recognized as the best player in the country's championship. In October 2022, he scored a debut ball in the Champions League in the group stage match against the Ajax Amsterdam. In December 2023, Kvratshelia received a reward at the Italian football award of the year in Milan.

Forward Georges Mikautadze

Forward of the French club "MEC" and the Georgian national team. It was he who scored the second goal in yesterday's match. Mikautadze was born on October 31, 2000 in French Lyon. The football player was a pupil of the Lyon Academy, for some time he also spent in the youth team Saint-Prix.

He joined the club "Metz" in 2017. Initially, Mikautadze was not considered as a player of the main composition in Metz, and he was leased to the Belgian Club Seren. However, in the first game for the new Mikautadze club, he made four goals in one match and later became the best scorer of the second division, scoring 19 goals, entered the symbolic team of the league and helped the team achieve an increase in the classroom.

Mikautadze returned to Metz in the summer of 2022. In the 2022/2023 season, he went to the team of the week six times in a row, became the best scorer and the best player of the league in the season.

For the first time, the football player was summoned to the Georgian national team in March 2021 for matches of the qualifying tournament of the World 2022 championship. At the Che-2024 Mikautadze, he became the only football player who scored the groups in every match-he sent balls to the goal of Turkey, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

Goalkeeper Georgy Mamardashvili

The goalkeeper of the Spanish club "Valencia" and the national team of Georgia. Mamardashvili was born on September 29, 2000 in Tbilisi. His father, David Mamardashvili, played at a professional level at the goalkeeper’s position and played for the teams of Vit-Jordia and Torpedo from Kutaisi.

Mamardashvili began his football career in the youth team of the Gagra Tbilisi club, and then in 2012 moved to the Tbilisi Dynamo. In 2019, he was leased to the Georgian club Rustavi. From the very beginning of the season, he entrenched in the club as the main goalkeeper - he spent 30 matches, of which in nine he kept his gates untouched.

At the beginning of 2020, he began to play for the Tbilisi Lokomotiv and also became the main goalkeeper of the club. In December of the same year, he received the award of the Georgian football federation as the best goalkeeper of the year, and in January 2021, UEFA included him in the list of 50 most prospecting football players.

Mamardashvili went to the Spanish Valencia in June 2021. In May 2022, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca, the football player was in the national team of the best players in La Liga at the end of the season.

In the match of the second round of the Euro-2024 group stage against the Czech Republic of Mamardashvili, 11 times saved the gates of the team, setting a record of European football championships. In total, Mamardashvili made 21 sibs for three fights on the group round and repeated the record of the goalkeeper of Latvia, Alexander Colinko, set in 2004.

Coach Willy Sanyol

Head coach of the Georgian national team. Sanyol was born on March 18, 1977 in French St. Etienne. The boy’s father loved football and named his son in honor of the player of the National Netherlands national team Willy Wang de Kerkhof.

In different years, Sanol played for the clubs “Saint-Etienne” (France), “Monaco” (Monaco), “Bavaria” (Germany), as well as for the French national team, playing in the position of the extreme defender. He became the silver medalist of the World Cup, and also received two Cups of Confederations.

He was appointed coach of the Georgian national football team in February 2021. Three years later, he brought the team to the first major international tournament-Euro 2024.

“We dreamed of going out in the 1/8 finals, but did not think that it was possible. Before the match with Portugal, we did not study possible rivals in the playoffs-we just accept everything as it is. Probably, Spain is the best team of the entire group stage, another serious test awaits us. I don’t know if it will be too serious for us, but we will fight from the first minutes, as in previous games, ”he said .