Barcelona’s João Félix starts as Portugal finish Euro 2024 group stage with defeat to Georgia
The Euro 2024 group stage has come to an end and Barcelona loanee João Félix was in the starting lineup for a much-changed Portugal side that lost 2-0 to Georgia in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday’s Group F finale. The Portuguese had already won the group coming into this one and Georgia took full advantage to pick up perhaps the biggest result in the nation’s footballing history and advance to the knockout stages in their Euros debut.
Georgia made a dream start thanks to a bad mistake by António Silva, who gave the ball away and started a counter-attack that ended with a great finish by Kvicha Kvaratskhelia to put the underdogs in front. Georgia fans went mad at the stadium, and a much-changed Portuguese side all of a sudden had to chase a comeback after just 93 seconds.
Portugal did not look very good in trying to chase that comeback, however, with painfully slow passing and very little movement up front. They offered very little threat except for a couple of shots by João Félix and Cristiano Ronaldo, and Portugal spent the rest of the half struggling to turn their possession into real chances.
As we reached the break Georgia deservedly had the lead and a spot in the knockout stages with 45 minutes to go, while Roberto Martínez had a stacked bench to turn to as Portugal looked for a second half comeback to finish the group stage with a perfect record.
Martínez made one change at the break with Rúben Neves replacing João Palhinha, but Portugal continued to struggle creating meaningful offense early on. And 10 minutes into the period came a penalty for Georgia after a VAR review, and Georges Mikautadze buried it to double the Georgian lead and get them closer to history.
There were two more substitutions for Portugal shortly after the hour mark with Gonçalo Ramos and Nélson Semedo coming on as time was beginning to run out on Portugal’s attempts to get back in the game. Georgia continued to defend very well near their box and Kvaratskhelia did a remarkable job keeping the ball and winning free-kicks to earn some much-needed time for his side, and the Georgians remained a threat on the counter as well.
Diogo Jota and Matheus Nunes also came on late as Martínez made his last two rolls of the dice to try and create some late drama, but Georgia’s defense was too resolute and the final whistle came to end a historic night for a Georgia side that advanced to the knockout stages of their very first Euros and have proven throughout the group stage that they will not be an easy opponent for Barça’s Spain contingent in the Round of 16.
As for Portugal the result is not really important as they were already through as group winners, and Martínez managed to rest almost all of his best players for 90 minutes in anticipation of the knockout stages. A few players tried and failed to impress and won’t earn a spot in the starting lineup for the Round of 16, but Portugal remain one of the favorites despite this result once their big guns return.
