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Spain were worried at moments against Georgia but, in the end, their leading stars proved decisive in a brilliant performance.
They dominated early on, but the Georgians took the lead with their first attack after a flowing move, finished off with yet another Euro 2024 own goal, the eighth of the tournament (this time from Robin Le Normand).
Spain drew level with the man for the big moment, Rodri, scoring from just outside the area. Then their 16-year-old wonderkid Lamine Yamal set up Fabian Ruiz to head in the winner. Nico Williams, another of their leading stars to have made them the tournament favourites, scored a devastating third before Dani Olmo completed the win.
The Georgians looked dangerous at times, as they have throughout the tournament, and will head home having given an excellent account of themselves in Germany.
Spain now face the hosts, Germany, in the quarter-finals.
Here, Dermot Corrigan, Matt Slater and Liam Tharme break down the action.
Yamal is world class already
Spain’s second goal was scored by Fabian Ruiz, his second of the tournament, but it was really all about 16-year-old Lamine Yamal.
First, Yamal had won a free kick on the edge of the Georgia box, taken it himself, and forced an excellent save from Mamardashvili. That would have been a disappointment, but as Spain recycled the ball, the Barcelona winger got back into position to receive a pass out wide.
When his team-mate got the ball, Fabian knew what to do, with the late run towards the back post. The delivery on his left foot was tremendous, whipped just high enough to take out the Georgian defenders but without giving Mamardashvili any chance to come off his line to take it. The ball was placed right on Fabian’s head, with the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder just having to apply the final touch from point-blank range.
2 – Lamine Yamal has made two assists for Spain at #EURO2024 (v Croatia and Georgia); the first teenager to assist multiple goals at an edition of the UEFA European Championship since Cristiano Ronaldo at EURO 2004 (2). Phenom. pic.twitter.com/1wGdLLJzXJ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 30, 2024
It was similar to Yamal’s assist for Dani Carvajal’s goal against Croatia in Spain’s opening game. We keep having to remind ourselves that he is just 16 years old — tonight he became the youngest player to appear in the knockout rounds of a Euros, taking the record by more than a year from Jude Bellingham at the last tournament.
Nothing seems to faze the Barcelona prodigy, whose technical quality, decision making and ability to impact games in key moments is already world class. All that was missing was a goal himself — and he came very close, with a left-foot curler from the edge of the box.
Dermot Corrigan
Williams’ wondergoal
Nico Williams goes unnoticed in the Spain team a lot purely because of Yamal’s presence. The game was fairly wrapped up at 2-1, with Georgia fatiguing and pushing without truly creating anything of note, but they gave space for Spain to exploit on the counter-attack — which is exactly what they had to defend from Georgia all game.
On an individual level, the goal was important, only Williams’ third internationally and his first goal since he scored in Spain’s 7-1 win away to Georgia in qualifying. The move for the goal, a counter-attack from deep after a misplaced Georgia pass, is an underrated side of Spain’s game and one often masked by their obsession for possession. Fabian Ruiz’s pass was long, precise and perfect. He was left out of Spain’s World Cup 2022 squad by Luis Enrique before becoming a key player under him at the base of midfield in Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League run last season.
21y 354d – Three of the six youngest players to score & assist both in a single Euro game ever are Spanish 🇪🇸(Fabregas in 2008, Ferran Torres in 2021 & Nico Williams in 2024, all of them with 21 years old). Proactive#EURO2024 #SPAGEO pic.twitter.com/mxPJu76GXT
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) June 30, 2024
Plenty of De la Fuente’s success has been adding verticality and directness, not that Fabian Ruiz’s ball did all the work. Williams still had to get the one-on-one with a smart dribble and finished high against the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season.
Knowing how vulnerable Germany have looked in transition in their first four games, De la Fuente might well lean into those counter-attacking strengths in the quarter-finals.
Liam Tharme
Georgian counters worried Spain (and lead to another own goal)
Georgia’s game plan was the same as the 2-0 win over Portugal in their final group-stage game — sit deep, drop into a 5-3-2, then hit Spain in transition. Only Germany (17) had more direct attacks in the group stages than Georgia (12), which Opta define as possessions starting in a team’s own half, with at least 50 per cent forward movement, and ending in a shot/touch in the opposition box.
It only took 13 seconds and three passes to open the scoring against Spain. Georgia’s first pass on the break is always forward and No 9 Mikautadze was, as he so often is, the link player. He dribbled inside then switched wide to right wing-back Kakabadze. His early cross was put into the net by Robin Le Normand (under pressure from Kvaratskhelia) — the eighth own goal at the tournament, all scored by different teams, and just three fewer than Euro 2020 (11).
Kvarastkhelia celebrates Georgia’s goal (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
Of their 26 shot-ending sequences this tournament, only one has been from a passing sequence of nine passes or more. They executed their underdog style excellently, with quality at both ends of the pitch — the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season (Mamardashvili), Serie A player of the year in 2022-23 (Kvarastkhelia), and Ligue 1’s breakout star of 2023-24 (Mikautadze).
Liam Tharme
Rodri and a simple, well-done one-two
As the game passed the half-hour mark, Spain were starting to look out of ideas in attack and Georgia looked to be the more confident team.
Given a rare chance to counter-attack with the Georgia defensive lines not well set, Williams raced up the pitch and Pedri found him in space in the box. But the shot (Spain’s 16th of the game already) was too close to Mamardashvili, who saved.
Spain recycled the ball though and moved it very cleverly. Pedri found Rodri at the edge of the box. The Man City midfielder clipped a pass wide to Williams, who controlled the ball and weighed up his options, before threading it straight back to Rodri.
Five Georgia defenders who had moved out towards the Athletic Bilbao winger were now rushing back in the other direction.
Rodri’s neat first touch with his right boot forced them all to twist yet again.
It was too much for Keitishvili, who was already limping and could not get close enough as Rodri’s left boot arrowed the ball right into the bottom corner, out of Mamardashvili’s reach. Keitishvili fell to the ground, Rodri raced off to celebrate, and the Georgian midfielder was unable to continue. After the match, Georgia manager Willy Sagnol said of the goal: “We lost a lot in that 20 seconds. There was the goal but we also lost Kiteishvili, who is such an important player for us.”
In one way it was a simple one-two, with Rodri swapping passes with Williams around the Georgia box. It was done so quickly and cleverly that the space opened up and Spain took advantage to get back level.
Rodri finishes off the move to equalise for Spain (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Dermot Corrigan
Kvaratskhelia says goodbye to Euros he lit up
Obviously, a player widely known by the nickname they were given because they remind everyone of Maradona cannot be called a breakout star of this tournament. He was Serie A’s player of the season in 2022-23. Kvaratskhelia broke out some time ago and has been running freely, causing havoc, ever since.
The 23-year-old Napoli star took a couple of games in Germany to reach his mesmerizing best, but he was brilliant against Portugal and shone even brighter against Spain.
With his side in a deep 5-3-2 formation, it was always going to be up to him and his partner in mayhem Mikautadze to provide Georgia’s attacking threat. And they did.
While the scoreline might not show it, Kvaradona worried, stretched and threatened Spain throughout. It was his arrival, at a rate of knots, that made Robin Le Normand turn the ball into his own net for Georgia’s opener and he very nearly scored the goal of this tournament — and many others — when he was a yard off beating Unai Simon from the halfway line. It was remarkable that he even saw the opportunity, let alone had the dexterity to so nearly pull it off.
It was not to be for Kvaratskhelia this evening, but at 23, he will have several more chances to keep breaking out whenever and wherever his team needs him.
Matt Slater
What did De la Fuente say?
Spain head coach Luis De la Fuente said: “We made a lot of chances — it could have been 8-1. Yes, there was some tension in the team when they scored because we had created so many chances of our own without scoring. And it was an own goal. But we calmed down and kept creating chances. We had lots of control against a really good team.
“Apart from a minutes when they scored, we controlled the game. But there were some lessons for us, which is good, we are learning every day. All the teams here can cause you problems, they’re all good. But we’re ready for any eventuality and we’ll be better for it.
“We are very ambitious and we are going from objective to objective. The next one is Germany, a footballing power. I don’t want to offend anyone but I feel we have the best team, the best players. Does that mean we’ll win? No, of course not, but we’ll fight to win, we’ll compete for it. There are no guarantees but with our quality, talent, commitment, we’re confident we can do it.”
What did Sagnol say?
Georgia manager Willy Sagnol was asked about Rodri’s goal and whether Spain forward Alvaro Morata was offside for it. Morata moved at the last moment as the ball went past him, and it was checked whether his positioning obscured the goalkeeper’s vision of the shot. “It’s difficult to talk about just one decision,” Sagnol said. “But if you want my opinion then yes, it was offside. If Dumfries was offside in the match against France then this was 10 times offside today. I think VAR is a wonderful evolution in football but we don’t use it properly.
“The decisions are taken by the same people, and they have 10 screens in front of them, but they take different decisions from one match to another. And that is why players and coaches don’t understand the decisions. VAR is a great invention but maybe we should just wait until we know how to use it properly.”
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(Top photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
